The International Society of Criminology, founded in Rome, Italy, in 1937, is the only worldwide organization in the field of criminology and criminal justice. Its objective is to generate a better understanding of the crime phenomenon on an international scale and translate that into appropriate policies, laws and interventions. Criminology has developed and thrived in the “Western” world, especially in the United States and other English-speaking northern countries. Recently, in step with reaffirming indigenous and local values and perspectives, a call for “regional” criminology expresses Asia’s approach and vision. This issue of the International Annals of Criminology illustrates the internationalization of the discipline and is an indication of its growing strength worldwide.

Academic criminology originated in Western countries, primarily in Europe and in the USA. It has achieved great success, produced many influential theories, sophisticated methodology, academic institutions, and effective policy products, and has formed a productive paradigm, which has led to a flourishing discipline. However, as there have been growing critiques against “Western-centric” criminology, growing attention has turned to non-Western criminology. As Belknap has said, “We are in an exciting time in criminology, as the scholarship is becoming more global, collaborative, and interdisciplinary.” This paper addresses several important disciplinary questions: the relationship between Western and non-Western criminology, the strategies of developing criminology under non-Western contexts, the relationship between context-dependent findings from the non-West and the scientific traditions that seek unified human knowledge of criminology. The article suggests a strategy for developing non-Western criminology based on the experience of the successful growth of Asian criminology over the past decade under the concept of an “Asian criminological paradigm.”

Corruption is an age-old issue. Although various mitigation measures have been developed over time, it persistently exists and transforms with the dynamic business environment. The development of corruption is linked to the skills of criminals to cover their tracks. Control mechanisms and other lines of defense are insignificant when persons of power override, bully or collaborate to carry out corruption. Since humans are perceived to be rational, educating individuals on the evils of corruption with its apparent negative connotations would have been a logical approach to disrupting corruption. However, the growing trend of corruption reflects otherwise. Human behavior is subjective and based on a person–situation complexity, relationships and associations around human life. This pilot study assesses the decisions of individuals based on various corruption scenarios, using 20 questions modeled around Corruption Dimensions and Prisoner’s Dilemma. Of the respondents, 92% had formal exposure to anti-corruption-related studies. Most respondents responded negatively to corruption-related scenarios in the Corruption Dimensions, with noted bias in their criticism when it involved a politician as compared with a businessman. Similarly, the Prisoner’s Dilemma questions also reflected selective reasoning when comparing those with personal relationships as compared with acquaintances. The strength of the evidence, the independence of the judiciary, the ability to escape, the reluctance to self-incriminate and the personal benefits affect the judgment of the respondents. However, in situations involving environmental issues, respondents selected to confess regardless of the situation stating that it was the right thing to do. Education creates awareness on individual rights, options and, to a certain extent, the moral and legal obligations. However, the subjectivity of the person’s associations and lifelong experience also plays a major role in the decision-making process.

Numerous studies find that sexual jealousy is a motivating factor in many intimate partner femicides. Given the paucity of scholarship in non-Western societies, the current article sought to extend empirical knowledge on the subject by focusing on sexual jealousy homicides in Fiji. A total of 30 male sexual jealousy homicides and attempted homicides in that society during 2010–2020 were identified through a thorough search of official court documents and local media sources. An in-depth criminological analysis of each case focused on victim and perpetrator attributes and offense features. The article finds that each homicide became a high-profile case, judging by the amount of media coverage afforded the incident and the degree of public interest demonstrated in the case. In 24 out of the 25 homicide cases, an aggrieved husband slew a supposed adulterous wife; the assailant killed his wife’s new consort in the remaining case. The mean age differential between perpetrators and victims was 7.9 years, and the mean length of the marital relationship was more than five years. Stabbing with kitchen knives, slashing with machetes, and manual asphyxiation were the dominant modes of offense perpetration. Nearly all cases evinced the following triple features of male sexual jealousy homicides: jealous rage, premeditation, and excessive violence. Summaries of all 30 cases are proffered in the article to reveal their essential features.

Money laundering repression and asset recovery are tools that share a very relevant preventive–general role. Both measures in Criminal Law seek to inhibit the monetary stimulus to commit offenses. The former does so by hampering the flow of earnings from illicit sources, and the latter by confiscating the earnings from their beneficiaries. These interlinked goals prove to be most useful from a criminal policy standpoint in the fight against organized crime since they are oriented to the economic disabling of their agents, blockading their financial movement and depriving them of the profits thus generated. This article explains the status of Paraguayan law and its application on these issues.

This article studies the juvenile justice system in juxtaposition to policing in India. To start with, it conducts a comprehensive data analysis of juvenile crimes in India in the last two decades. The author conducted a study involving 400 juveniles in conflict with the law through “Disha,” a project in juvenile re-entry systems. It further marshals the incidences based on social parameters like education, age, and family. Here, the paper impresses upon the “heinousness factor” of the crimes to evaluate the law and institutional response. The article examines the growth of the legal framework on juvenile justice in India and the causal determinants which may have driven its increase. It also scrutinizes the policing systems as far as the legal framework on juvenile justice makes them responsible. It delves deeply into the interactions between juvenile justice and police systems at the institutional and procedural levels. It conducts a detailed inquiry into the international legal framework of juvenile justice systems. Here, it studies such systems in the Americas, Europe, and Asia to suggest the way forward for a transparent, robust and sensitive juvenile justice system in India.

This paper presents the empirical analysis from two Indian States to understand factors influencing the social reintegration of released prisoners. Samples of the study comprise 100 released prisoners who are currently under the probation system. The article identified stability in income, maintaining good relationships with the family and community, and membership in informal groups as four outcome variables of reintegration. The paper also identified seven factors – four factors concerning the stay at the prison and three factors concerning life after release – as capable of influencing the extent of reintegration. A reintegration index has been constructed to examine the relationship between reintegration and seven supporting factors that influence reintegration. The article also used a correlation matrix to analyse the relationship between the reintegration index and the contributing factors of reintegration. The paper suggests that factors such as visits by family members and probation officers and availing parole have a significant positive relationship, but that years of stay have a significant negative relationship with the reintegration of released prisoners.

In 2006, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in South Asia, in partnership with the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, initiated Project IND/S16. In the beginning, five states were selected to train police officials under the “Strengthening the Law Enforcement Response to Human Trafficking” project. The training program resulted from a study done by two researchers, Dr. P. M. Nair and Shanker Seen. Their study recommended training programs to strengthen the law enforcement response to human trafficking and establish anti-human trafficking units (AHTUs) in India. However, no evaluation of the work of functionaries of AHTUs was done until the authors of this article took the initiative with the support of the Additional Director General of Police of Gujarat to identify the major problems in AHTUs at the grassroots level. Their exploratory research covered the 40 AHTUs from all 33 districts of Gujarat, focusing on the experiences and opinions of 214 police authorities (i.e. police inspectors, police sub-inspectors, assistant sub-inspectors, constables, and Lok Rakshak (public guards)) officially assigned to the AHTUs of Gujarat. This article summarizes the research and is based on experiences documented while collecting information in the field.