ASC Division on Critical Criminology & Social Justice

Welcome to the Division on Critical Criminology & Social Justice (DCCSJ), part of the American Society of Criminology.

The DCCSJ fosters research and theory development in the field of critical criminology, provides a forum for members of the ASC to discuss ideas and to exchange information, organizes sessions at the annual conference of the ASC, and encourages appropriate and effective teaching techniques and practices and to stimulate the development of curricula related to courses on critical criminology.

Contact Us!

Please let us know if you have any questions and would like additional information on awards, nominations, newsletters, contributions, and more!

Call for Contributions – October Newsletter

The next DCCSJ newsletter will come out in October, so we’re looking to collect submissions over the next few weeks! This issue we’re especially interested in content related to the upcoming ASC Conference in Chicago.

We’re looking for contributions in the following areas:

1. Chicago Spotlight:

Help us get everyone excited about Chicago! Send us your recommendations for places to visit while you’re in town, including: community organizations and local initiatives, museums and cultural institutions, historic sites and landmarks, neighborhoods worth exploring, restaurants, cafés, bookstores, shops and anything else you think an ASC attendee shouldn’t miss!

2. What to Read, Watch & Listen to Before Chicago

Please send us your recommendations for: books, podcasts, films, documentaries and music about Chicago. We’re looking for anything that will help people get to know the city before they arrive!

3. Kudos & Announcements

Have something to celebrate or announce? We’d love to hear about it! Send us news about publications, awards, new positions, grants, recent accomplishments, upcoming events, or other updates you’d like to share with the DCCSJ community.

We’re looking forward to putting together an October issue that gets everyone excited for ASC and ready to explore Chicago!

If you’d like to contribute to the Chicago Spotlight, What we’re reading/watching/and listening to, or you have kudos or announcements to share, please email the information to us at dccsjcommsteam@gmail.com or click here to fill out a google form. The deadline to send us these contributions is October 10th.

2026 Award Nomination Information

For most awards, nomination materials are typically due by August 1 each year. However, the Teaching and Book awards require a more extensive review process, resulting in earlier deadlines, generally between April and May. Specific deadlines are provided below.

Community Organizing Award

In coordination with our division’s mission of critically examining and recognizing humanistic social formations and supporting networks that pursue critical practice, this award recognizes an organization that has exhibited sustainable impact on an identifiable area of community need.

Core Criteria:

Impact: The nominated organization (initiative, or collaborative effort) should demonstrate an impact on a community in need.
Sustainability: The organization, initiative, or community collaboration needs to have built/contributed sustainable efforts toward the future of the organization. Examples include structures, relationships, or practices that support long-term impact beyond a single project or effort.
Community Need: The community needs should also be clearly identified, communicated, and presented to the awards committee so that people can have informed and clear voting standards.
Leadership: The leadership, understood broadly, including shared, community-based, or organizational leadership, should be evidenced and highlighted in the recipients, and how the organization has been shored up and/or developed under current leadership.
Inclusivity & Public Education: The recipient should have also shown evidence of coalition building toward inclusion and demonstrated efforts toward educating those unaware of the needs of the previously mentioned community groups.

Eligibility: Organizations should have been active for some time frame of significance (1 year or more). Eligibility may include established non-profits, grassroots organizations, and/or newer community organizations demonstrating impact.

International in Scope: At the inception of this award, DCCSJ members emphasized the importance of recognizing the international scope of the ASC and ensuring that recipients are not limited to the U.S./Global North. We strongly encourage nominations that reflect the global nature of our field. Members also encouraged consideration of organizations connected to the host city of the ASC Annual Meeting, as well as organizations serving regional and rural communities. Doing so provides an opportunity to strengthen connections between critical criminology and local organizations, community initiatives, and historically significant sites in the locations hosting the American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting.

Nomination Materials: Nominations may include, but are not limited to, a letter of nomination, supporting documentation of the organization’s work and impact, letters of support, and links to relevant websites, reports, or media. We encourage nominators to submit any materials that demonstrate the organization’s sustained contributions to the community.

Nomination Deadline: October 1, 2026. Please send nomination materials to Emily Troshynski, email: emily.troshynski@unlv.edu

Nomination materials will be reviewed by the newly elected DCCSJ Executive Counselors.

*Note: The DCCSJ Praxis award is designated for individuals holding academic/educational positions. By centering community-based and collective work, this new DCCSJ Community Organizing award is intended to complement (not replace and/or duplicate) that recognition.

This award is not necessarily given every year, but rather when a deserving organization or collaborative effort is nominated with clear evidence presented to the executive committee of the five core criteria and eligibility requirements.

Lifetime Achievement Award

The Lifetime Achievement Award honors an individual’s sustained and distinguished scholarship, teaching, and/or service in the field of critical criminology.

Nomination process: Nominees must be current or former members of DCCSJ for a minimum of three years. These years of membership do not need to be consecutive. Typically, an individual – ideally, a group of colleagues – submits a nomination letter along with the nominee’s CV. Multiple letters of support are encouraged but not required. Nomination materials due by August 1 and should be submitted to the Lifetime Achievement Award Committee Chair, Dr. Donna Selman, at dlselma@ilstu.edu

Jock Young Criminological Imagination Book Award

The Jock Young Criminological Imagination Book Award is intended to recognize and publicize a recent book published within the last 2 years (see below) that best serves to further the goals of the DCCSJ by providing an outstanding example of an eff ort to highlight relevant research, topics, frameworks, theories, etc. The book can be sole or co-authored, edited, or co-edited. The author(s) of the book must be members of the division at the time of the nomination.

Nomination process: The nomination must include a narrative statement that specifies the contribution the book makes to the goals of the DCCSJ. To ensure a thoughtful and intentional nomination process, it is required that each nomination include a nomination letter outlining the reasons for the submission. This ensures that nominations are accompanied by a meaningful endorsement that highlights the book’s merits and why it deserves consideration for the DCCSJ Book Award. Without a nomination letter, submissions will not be considered eligible for review. Nominations from publishers alone will not be considered.

Nominees should initially contact the Chair of the Book Award Committee, Dr. Deena Isom, ISOM@mailbox.sc.edu, by May 15. The chair of the committee will provide the mailing addresses of the committee members. The nominees will then make arrangements with the respective publishers to mail out each book to each committee member. All books and narrative statements must be delivered to the committee members by June 15.

Critical Criminologist of the Year Award

The Critical Criminologist of the Year Award honors an early-to-mid-career individual’s distinguished accomplishments that have symbolized the spirit of the DCCSJ in some form of scholarship, teaching, and/or service in recent years.

Nomination process: Typically, someone – or a group of people – submits a letter, along with the CV of the nominee. Multiple letters of support are encouraged but not required. Nomination Materials due by August 1 to Critical Criminologist of the Year Award Committee Co-Chairs Dr. Bill McClanahan at billmcc@utk.edu and Dr. Jose Atiles at jatiles@illinois.edu

Praxis Award

The Praxis Award recognizes an individual whose professional accomplishments have increased the quality of justice for groups that have experienced class, ethnic, gender, racial, and sexual disparities in policing and punishment. The DCCSJ Praxis Award honors unique achievements in activism, commitment, persuasion, scholarship, service, and teaching in areas that have made a significant impact on the quality of justice for underserved, underrepresented, and otherwise marginalized populations.

Nomination process: Typically, someone – or a group of people – submits a letter, along with the CV of the nominee. Multiple letters of support are encouraged but not required. Nomination Materials due by August 1 to Praxis Award Committee Chair Dr. Judah Schept at Judah.Schept@eku.edu

Teaching Award

The Teaching Award recognizes contributions that have made a significant impact on the teaching of critical criminology at the local, state, regional, national, or international level. These contributions may include a) exemplary classroom teaching and/or student engagement activities, b) leadership and innovation in teaching developments such as the preparation of teaching and curriculum-related materials and publications, c) contributions to the scholarship on teaching and learning, d) contributions to the enhancement of teaching within state, regional, or national associations.

Nomination process: Typically, someone – or a group of people – submits a nomination letter, along with the CV of the nominee. Multiple letters of support are encouraged but not required. Nomination Materials due by June 15 to Teaching Award Committee Chair Dr. Robert Weide at rweide@calstatela.edu.

Graduate Student Paper Award

The Graduate Student Paper Award is intended to recognize the work of early career researchers by honoring papers of outstanding theoretical or empirical critical criminological scholarship. Most importantly, papers must make a scholarly contribution to the broad arena of Critical Criminology.

The requirement is that the paper must have been written/authored by someone when they were a graduate student and that they must not have already published the piece nor should the piece be under consideration with a journal. Papers must have been written within the last two years. Papers can be sole or co-authored, but the graduate student must be listed as the first author.

In order to further the careers of critical student scholars, the DCCSJ Awards Committee may, in consultation with the Editor-in-Chief, invite student paper award winners to publish their papers in Critical Criminology: An International Journal.

Nomination process: Nominations for the student paper awards must be submitted electronically and include the student’s unpublished paper. Nomination materials are due by August 1 to Graduate Student Paper Award Committee Chair Dr. Ashley Farmer at akfarme@ilstu.edu

Undergraduate Student Paper Award

The Undergraduate Student Paper Award recognizes and honors outstanding theoretical or empirical critical criminological scholarship by an undergraduate student. The key is that the paper must have been written by someone when he/she was an undergraduate student, and that he/she must not have already published the piece, nor is the piece under consideration with a journal. Papers must also have been written within the last two years. The papers can be sole or co-authored; however, the graduate/undergraduate student must be the first author.

Nomination process: Nominations for the student paper awards must be submitted electronically and include the student’s unpublished paper. Typically, someone– a faculty member or advisor– submits a letter of support/recommendation, along with the undergraduate paper submitted for the award. Nomination materials are due by August 1 to Undergraduate Student Paper Award Committee Chair Dr. Brian Pitman at bpitman@lander.edu.

Journal Article Award

The Journal Article Award will be given annually for the best peer-reviewed article, published in Critical Criminology: An International Journal in the previous year, that, in the opinion of the award committee, makes an outstanding original contribution to knowledge.

Nomination process: Articles published in Critical Criminology, within the last year, will be considered.

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