The American Journal of Criminal Justice at UNF Releases ‘Crime and Justice During the Coronavirus Pandemic’

The American Journal of Criminal Justice (AJCJ), housed in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of North Florida, has released a special thematic issue looking at “Crime and Justice During the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

This special issue features 21 timely contributions from leading social scientists on a wide range of related topics including crime trends during the pandemic, hate crime, immigration, domestic violence, policing, social ordinances enforcement, court challenges, cybercrime, the need for a national COVID-19 crime and justice research agenda and the overall crisis to corrections presented by COVID-19.

This edition is being provided free of charge by Springer Publications with open access as a public service to the academic community and the public during this pandemic.

“The criminal justice system is seeing unprecedented challenges and pressures due to the virus and pandemic, as well as social unrest and racial strife. Now more than ever, there is a need for authoritative scholarship to inform policy and practice responses - almost all of which either directly or indirectly involve criminal justice” said Dr. J. Mitchell Miller, AJCJ editor and John A. Delaney Presidential Professor at UNF.

In the opening article of the journal, Miller and nationally prominent co-author Alfred Blumstein provide an introductory overview of COVID-19 effects on various crime, justice, and victimization issues and outline a conceptual research framework oriented around virus contagion and containment. The issue also features contributions from Dr. Brenda Vose, UNF Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice chair and Dr. Holly Ventura Miller, Criminal Justice Graduate Program director.

In “Targeted Release in the COVID-19 Correctional Crisis: Using the RNR Model to Save Lives,” Vose discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has added a new threat to correctional facilities that are already overcrowded and ill-equipped to identify and address the medical needs of the inmate population. She describes how the identification and release of inmates who pose the least threat to society will alleviate some of the burdens associated with prison crowding and limit the transmission of COVID-19 within correctional facilities.

Ventura Miller looks at "Immigration Policy and Justice in the Era of COVID-19" and examines the policies and practices of immigration authorities in the U.S. during the pandemic. The article discusses recent court challenges to immigration policy changes, ICE enforcement activity since the shutdown, conditions in ICE detention facilities vis-a-vis virus spread, and the consequences of deportations during the pandemic.

The American Journal of Criminal Justice is the official journal of the Southern Criminal Justice Association. It is a peer-reviewed publication offering research on a wide array of criminal justice topics and issues. Coverage includes the formal and informal interplay between system components, innovative practices, policy development and implementation, and much more.