Politicized Scholarship? Science and Scholactivism around Crime and Crime Control, 2000-2025

• In Event: National, Transnational, and International Histories of Sociology and Social Thought

Abstract

More than twenty years ago, Joachim Savelsberg and colleagues demonstrated that authors who received certain kinds of federal funding were more likely to produce research focused on the causes of crime (than on the criminal justice system) and to invoke more conservative-leaning theories. Government funding was seen to politicize scholarship. However, the academic landscape has changed, with other sources of politicization, including from more liberal-leaning directions. Using a similar corpus of criminological scholarship published in criminology, sociology, and interdisciplinary journals from 1990 to 2025, this study evaluates hypotheses and identifies correlates of politicization, including university and NGO funding and author affiliation. In doing so, it updates Savelsberg et al. (2002) for a new era of politicized scholarship.

Author

• Ashley T. Rubin, University of Hawaii at Manoa