Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in Microsoft Word (.doc/.docx)
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Diretrizes para Autores.
  • The contribution has not more than 3 authors
  • The manuscript file does not identify its author(s)
  • Authors have not been identified and qualified on the front page on a separated file
  • The summary contains between 100 and 250 words followed by 4 to 6 keywords.
  • The contribution has between 15 to 45 pages and follows the formatting guide at the Guidelines for Authors

Author Guidelines

1 Standards for publication

  • 1.1 Submitting articles presume acceptance of the standards for publication and evaluation of articles. Submission also implies that copyright of the manuscript sent is assigned to the Latin American Journal of Criminology. Editors may decide about the editorial and graphic characteristics, the methods of distribution and how to make the material available, as well as the date the article will be issued.
  • 1.2 Texts submitted must have not been published elsewhere regardless of the publication method, i.e. printed or digital, and evaluation of articles submitted simultaneously to more than one periodical is barred.
    • 1.2.1 It should be stressed that an article never published before should not be confused with originality, while the subject the article covers can be one that has already been addressed by other author(s) and/or publications;
    • 1.2.2 With the exception of summaries, texts published in annals of scientific events are not considered as material never published before.
    • 1.2.3 Articles consisting of reduced versions of Master’s dissertations or thesis will be considered as material never published before, even if they have been published in full in postgraduate program thesis databases and articles published in the past in annals of scientific events but show actual improvements as a result of debates and subsequent studies (specify such changes to the editorial team in your submission e-mail).
    • 1.2.4 Translations of articles may also be submitted for evaluation by the journal, provided they enclose an authorization from their respective authors and, whenever necessary, from the journal holding publication rights of such material. Nevertheless, the decision of whether or not publishing the material will be a prerogative of the Journal’s coordination.
  • 1.3 Articles must be exclusively submitted through the platform created for the double-blind review and be in *.doc or *.docx files.
  • 1.4 The articles must have not more than 3 authors.
  • 1.5 The articles must enclose a cover sheet containing the personal information of each author.
    • 1.5.1 Qualifications of the authors must follow these criteria: begin with their academic title (from last to first); if they are a faculty member, provide the relevant information right after their title; subsequently, fill out any additional information (associations or other institutions they are a member of and the federation state and city of such institution/association); lastly, provide their position or job they hold (other than in the academic field). Provide the ORCID identifier, e-mail for contact and link to their profile in the LATTES platform (dispensable requirement for non-Brazilian authors)
  • 1.6 The articles may be in any language provided they follow the respective formal grammar.
    • 1.6.1 The following are compulsory elements: introduction, development, conclusion and references. Also, the text should indicate its title in the language of the article; title in English and Spanish; summary in the language of the article; keywords in the language of the article; summary in English and Spanish; keywords in English and Spanish; table of content. If the main language of the article is other than Brazilian Portuguese, then the title, summary and keywords will also have to be in Brazilian Portuguese.
    • 1.6.2 Summaries must contain between 100 and 250 words followed by 4 to 6 keywords.
    • 1.6.3. Manuscripts must be 15 to 45 page-long. The font to be used is Times New Roman, size 12, in the body of the text. Furthermore, the line spacing must be 1.5, top, bottom and side margins at 2.0 cm. The page size must be A4 and justified. Exceptions to the number of pages will be subject to a preliminary evaluation.
    • 1.6.4 If the authors wish to emphasize anything in their text, they must use bold while italic should be reserved for words, expressions and quotes in a language different from the original language of their article. Quotation marks must be used for quoting other authors .
    • 1.6.5 The following are post-textual compulsory elements: references containing only references that have been effectively quoted in the development of the text.
    • 1.6.6 Bibliographical references and quotes must follow the Brazil’s standards guide (NBRs) 6023:2018 and standards set by Brazil’s technical standards association (ABNT) 10520:2002.
      • References must follow the NBR 6023/2018 standard (from ABNT). References must be informed in the body of the text in the author/date/page order (BERTÚLIO, 2019, p. 40). Bibliographical references in full must be indicated in the REFERENCES list only, at the end of the text. Example: BERTÚLIO, Dora Lúcia de Lima. Direito e Relações Raciais. Rio de Janeiro: Lumen Juris, 2019.
    • 1.6.7 The author is required to inform in the footnote any funding or benefits s/he may have received from business funders (for example, if the article is the result of an opinion that has been commissioned) and to make a no-conflict statement that would otherwise compromise the scientificity of the paper submitted.
    • 1.6.8 References to laws or case law should contain all data necessary to adequately identify and find them. When Internet websites are mentioned, their link must be informed after the expression “Available on:” and the date the link was accessed right after the expression “Access on:”. Dates must follow the universal abbreviation standard set by ABNT. Example: 20 Aug. 2012; 15 Sep. 2018; 22 Mar. 2019, etc.
    • 1.6.9 Inserting diagrams, schemes, charts, tables and graphics in the text by using images is suggested to avoid distortions in the subsequent diagramming.
  • 1.7 The Journal’s team will not complement any publication requirement, and manuscripts submitted without having met such requirements in full will not be accepted for evaluation.

2. Review and selection of manuscripts

  • 2.1 Authors will be informed if their manuscript is selected. The editor will make a preliminary evaluation of the material and formal elements, further to elements as to how original, novel and relevant the article is.
  • 2.2 Having met all minimum requirements, the material will be evaluated in a double-blind peer-review system. In case of a divergence among the original reviewers, the manuscript will be submitted to a third reviewer.
  • 2.3 Authors will be informed of the result of the review and given access to the reviews with no identification of the reviewers.
  • 2.4 If the article is approved - on a condition or not -, editors will evaluate how relevant the article is and whether there is an opportunity for publication. The editors of the Journal will have the decision of publishing the text.
  • 2.5 Pursuant to the double-blind peer-review system, papers by invited authors will be exceptionally accepted whenever their scientific contribution is considered to be of great relevance for the scope of the journal.
  • 2.6 The Journal will make available an e-mail for consultation to answer doubts.

3. Presumed Ethical Integrity in Research

  • 3.1 Authorship: All persons who contributed with the research should be named.
  • 3.2 Ban on Plagiarism: Whenever an idea or phrasing used in the manuscript is evidently not of public domain in the research field in question, then such idea or phrasing is presumed as an original contribution. Otherwise, any idea or phrasing should expressly be given credits under penalty of plagiarism.
  • 3.3 Ban on Self-Plagiarism: In case of any identical or substantially similar article having been published elsewhere, even if in a different language, such fact must be expressly reported in the text and informed to the editor at the time of the submission. Failure to expressly mention such fact will characterize self-plagiarism and submission will be refused.
  • 3.4 Free and Informed Consent (TCLE): Whenever interviewees are identifiable by virtue of the subject-matter or other circumstances of the research, such identifiable interviewees will be required to submit a Free and Informed Consent (TCLE).
  • 3.5 Data Responsibility
    • 3.5.1 Sources: Whenever data is referenced, the source of such data must be indicated.
    • 3.5.2 Confidentiality Agreement: Whenever an article uses data obtained through a Confidentiality Agreement, its authors should send such agreement at the time of submission so compliance with the agreement may be ascertained.
    • 3.5.3 Handling data: Whenever methods to correct statistics are used, such methods should be identified and justified.
  • 3.6 Editorial responsibility
    • 3.6.1 Double-blind review should be delivered with rigor, objectivity, impartiality and readiness. The interest of making the best evaluation should prevail over other interest, such as strict compliance with the deadlines imposed. Divergence in opinion should not be considered as sufficient reason for an unfavorable review.
    • 3.6.2 The reviewer should hold in confidentiality and not use the information s/he may have had access to while on his/her duty as a reviewer for his/her own use.
    • 3.6.3 The reviewer should resign as a reviewer due to any potential conflict of interest whenever the reviewer has a regular scientific cooperation in a research, publication, supervision or tutorship activity, or in case of a familial or affectionate tie with any of the researchers in charge of the manuscript submitted to his/her evaluation.

4. Revision, diagramming and publication

  • 4.1 Once the editorial process to select articles is through, the approved articles selected for the respective issue will be sent for revision and diagramming.
  • 4.2. The revision concerns grammar and spelling, as well as formatting (diagramming) of the files. Subsequently, on a date closer to publication, the author will be contacted again to go through the post-revision correction suggestions and check formatting in a three (3)-day turnaround deadline. Lack of response will imply the corrections suggested in the revision are accepted in full. At this stage, the author is required to refrain from making any substantial change in the text but only make the suggested revision and indispensable updates.
  • 4.3 With regard to the spelling revision, the spelling correction (orthography, accent marks, hyphen, etc.) will be made according to the most recent Orthographic Agreement of Portuguese Language (2009) in effect (mandatory since 01 Jan. 2016), even for quotes of original statements prior to such Agreement. Exception is made to ancient documents in contexts where preserving their original spelling is relevant and meaningful in historiographical and/or linguistic terms, etc.
  • 4.4 Subsequently, upon the approvals and rejections from authors of the revision suggestions, the articles are sent to final diagramming and publishing.

5. Waiting criteria and publication preference

  • 5.1 Publication of articles approved in the peer control and selected by the editors of the journal will follow the chronological order of their submission and approval, with the exception of invited authors. Nevertheless, because of the rules imposed by the Qualis/CAPES commission, there are criteria for evaluation and publication preference that may be met by authors seeking to expedite publication of their material. Criteria for preference in the publication order are defined in the items below.
  • 5.2 Because of the exogenous work rule, articles by authors representing the Federal District in Brazil are limited to 25% of the total of material published per issue and, accordingly, there is a specific line-up for articles that fit such circumstance;
  • 5.3 In view of the quality rules imposed, each issue published will preferably contain between 50 to 60% of the articles with author (at least one) whose title is doctor and, accordingly, publication of material with no authors holding such title is limited;
  • 5.4 Articles whose co-authorship comprises permanent professors in university-level programs from different federation units, with their membership duly identified;
  • 5.5 Original articles by professionals connected to foreign university institutions;
  • 5.6 Articles in English, Spanish or in other languages even if the author is Brazilian;
  • 5.7 Articles resulting from researches funded by sponsoring organs duly identified in the text.
  • 5.8 Further to such circumstances, material that cover an imminent topic of the current time and which may become obsolete as the time passes for taking too long to be published takes preference in publication. Such situation is determined by the editorial team of the Journal and may be suggested by those delivering an opinion on reviews.
  • 5.9 It should be emphasized, however, that the criteria exposed in this topic determine the preference an article takes in the evaluation and publication process, but they are not indispensable requirements. For example, although texts whose authorship consists of an author with doctor title take preference because nothing impedes publication of articles with such feature. They will all be submitted to peer control that will adopt identical parameters in the selection aiming at a quality scientific production in the journal.
  • 5.10 Pursuant to a Qualis/CAPES rule, the percentage of articles by invited authors is limited to 25% per issue.
  • 5.11 The Journal may publish special issues or specific dossiers inside its usual issues by reason of the relevance, significance of the topic, as decided by the editorial team and its editorial council. The issue or dossier may be assigned to an associate editor with relevant knowledge about the subject. In such situation, a notice containing all necessary information, such as rules and deadlines for submission, will be released. No matter the circumstance, double-blind peer review will be in place.

Dossier: Power and control technologies in the information society

Power and control technologies in the information society

Call Dossier Number 01 / Volume 01 - 2021

The study of social control has been one of the central elements in the history of Criminology since the sixties of the last century. During these years, new thinkers devoted great efforts to defining social control and to studying its implementation in the field of criminal policy. Theories and postulates were formulated that, now, face new challenges with the configuration, from the nineties, of what we know with the information society. With the networked society, communication flows appear as a central element in discursive strategies and in the set of actions around social control. Elements that we can trace both in punitive populism and in the configuration of public opinions.

The fast-paced information society puts new horizons for the study of social control. Narrative disputes take place in the field of artificial intelligence, where bubbles of data and opinions distort discourse and perception of criminal facts. Flows of communication put the traditional separation between public and private sphere in crisis. The invasion of privacy appears as a defining feature of the new social control. In this context, the so-called post-truth has a strong impact on the exercise of power, both in fragile democratic contexts and in consolidated democracies.

We have seen these trends accelerate in many countries suddenly with the management of the Covid-19 pandemic. The health crisis revealed social inequalities and also the potential of new information technologies in the control of citizens, with a level of sophistication hitherto unknown in the field of social sciences. Its application ranges from the identification of individuals suspected of contamination to the tracking of those activities considered inappropriate from the controllers’ point of view. Algorithms based on "patterns of power" are the new tool of control that punish collectives considered suspect and who are outside this dominant moral discourse. The protection of privacy emerges as the great theme of the hyperconnected society.

This moment of great challenges requires a debate on the theoretical assumptions of the models of social control and the strategies that support the current criminal policies. In this regard, for this dossier, we are particularly interested in:

  1. Texts with empirical data on the uses of artificial intelligence in social control and penal control;
  2. Articles that condense research results on media and violence in Latin America;
  3. Theoretical essays on risk society and actuarial criminal policy;
  4. Case studies on electronic freedom controls used to manage deprivation of liberty in the context of criminal justice;
  5. Evaluations of experiences with the use of control technologies in cases of gender violence, such as panic buttons, bracelets or electronic anklets (Electronic Monitoring);
  6. Studies on the relationship between media, citizen (in)security and shaping public opinion in the under criminological.

Given this context and this problem, the Latin American Journal of Criminology (RELAC) invites researchers to submit their articles for this dossier until February 8, 2021.

Coordinators:
Prof. Cristina Zackseski, Ph.D. (University of Brasilia, UnB)
Prof. Francesc Barata Villar, Ph.D. (University Ramon Llull, URL)

Assistant editor:
Welliton Caixeta Maciel, Ph.D. in Law candidate (University of Brasilia, UnB)

Dossier: The voices on the internet, the streets and social movements [...]

The voices on the internet, the streets and social movements against police brutality and Institutional racism

Call Dossier Number 02 | Volume nº 01 | Number 2

Being born as a conservative speech aimed at justifying and improving strategies for conformism and social exclusion, Criminology has faced self-criticism and criticism to power in Latin America. The critical criminology trends (Criminology of Liberation, Criminology of Dependency, Feminist Criminologies, Critical Criminology) and alternative movements in criminal policy (Abolitionism, Guarantee of Enforcement of Legal Provisions [Garantismo], Marginal Realism, Anti-Asylum Movement, Consensual Justice and movements concerning Children and Teenage Well-being and Indigenous Justice) made Criminology known among many study centers in Latin America as a science politically engaged and committed to ending punitive, institutionalized and structural violence. In the last decades, this scientific field advanced its most when new master and doctorate classes were created, when new social segments were created in the academy, when investigation methodologies were established, and when new funding sources for research were found. In the core of Latin-American review we find a report of how unequal the penal system and its high rates of violence are. Despite this fact, hegemonic academic papers have advanced very little in their current dialog with social movements, especially those related to ways of racial exclusion and class magnitudes, generations, gender and sexuality, in major urban centers and in border cities and armed conflict regions. In this context, after the mortal violence in Minneapolis committed by police officer Derek Chauvin against George Floyd was filmed, countless North-American cities staged demonstrations against police brutality. In the middle of the Coronavirus Pandemic, the wave of protests, especially of those led by African-American women, spread through network and reached Latin America, by giving visibility to countless black and feminist social movements that have been exposing police brutality for decades by means of their local and international dynamics. This scenario unveiled the tension between the hegemonic academic production and the works that create a dialog with the demands from these social groups.

What is the future of research in Criminology in Latin America in this scenario? What has been built and what has been silenced? Where can we go from here?

For the purposes exposed here, papers covering the subjects below are welcome:

  1. Genocide, its conceptual dimension and the interface between criminology and ethnical-racial relations;
  2. Quantitative aspects of institutional racism, especially the analysis of the homicide of young people and massacres in regions of conflict;
  3. Decolonial epistemologies and historic dimensions of the penal system with a focus on the institutional violence against traditional groups and ancestral territories;
  4. Intersectionalities and racial oppression especially with a focus on relations between race, ethnic, gender and sexual orientation in the genocide of the black population in the hyperincarceration, in police brutality and in drugs policy;
  5. New rationalities for criminology? The role of social movements in reporting institutional racism and police brutality, contributions from social movements to the debate about criminology and racial relations (for example: the movement of mothers who report the killing of their black offspring);
  6. How social movements take action to build public policies against police brutality and institutional racism, and how the ascension of authoritarian political movements in Latin America impact the disassembling of public policies to restrain police brutality;
  7. The relations between digital activism, political and technological strategies to report police brutality;
  8. Legal and management strategies, from a comparative and international perspective, to contain police brutality.

Given this context and this problem, the Latin American Journal of Criminology (RELAC) invites researchers to submit their articles for this dossier until August 15, 2021.

Dossier editors:
Dina Alves (IBCCrim)
Evandro Piza Duarte (UnB)
Thula Pires (PUC-RIO)
Tukufu Zuberi (UPenn)

Assistant editor:
Isabela Miranda (UnB)
Walkyria Chagas (UnB)

Dossier: Empirical Research in Criminal Science

Política de Desencarceramento e Questão Penitenciária

Chamada nº 03 | Volume nº 02 | Número 1

Coordenadores
Dra. Carolina Costa Ferreira (IDP)
Dr. Jackson da Silva Leal (UNESC)
Dr. Luiz Antônio Bogo Chies (UCPel)

Editora assistente
Júlia Silva Vidal (Doutoranda - UnB)

Período de Avaliação
Até 30 de junho de 2022

Esse dossiê se apresenta como um espaço de confluências de pesquisas e construções teóricas para pensar a questão prisional a partir de duas abordagens. A primeira delas é a perspectiva crítica mais radical, de ordem estrutural, abordando a política que ocasionou no encarceramento em massa brasileiro e latino-americano no período neoliberal. A segunda abordagem, em uma perspectiva mais estratégica, visa pensar as políticas que se inserem no campo dos serviços penitenciários e que tem buscado servir como mecanismos de abertura e saída gradual da prisão; visando práticas concretas de lidar com a dinâmica da violência prisional.
O tema é tratado a partir desses dois vértices, portanto, com vistas a congregar pesquisas de distintas perspectivas, campos e lentes analíticas, para que se possa constituir um mosaico mais amplo, variado, e com isso contribuir com a perspectiva de análise da crítica prisional de longo alcance, sem deixar de lado as práticas estratégicas para reduzir a prisão o sofrimento produzido por ela.
A urgência de uma política e perspectiva desencarceradora passa pela construção de um horizonte que se permita prescindir da prisão, mas que também se constitua enquanto campo estratégico, ou seja, não se dá apenas encerrado no plano das ideias nas torres de marfim da academia. Por isso esse dossiê busca abordar a problemática desde essas dimensões: estrutural e estratégica.
As prisões latino-americanas destacam-se pela precariedade das possibilidades legais de execução das penas. Os problemas que já eram conhecidos se tornaram ainda mais prementes desde o início das contaminações pelo Covid-19, e com o processo de privatização da prisão e da segurança pública é de fundamental importância não negligenciar essas mudanças a ponto de reconstituir a fábula da boa prisão. Porém, também importa dar a devida atenção a algumas possibilidades de saída antecipada e de comunicação com os reclusos e toda a sofisticação tecnológica surgida e que tem potencial de alterar procedimentos e perspectivas na execução penal.
Estamos interessados, portanto, em artigos que possam contribuir para o tema e apresentem resultados de pesquisa sobre:
a) Encarceramento em massa e neoliberalismo;
b) Progressão de regime e saídas antecipadas da prisão (com e sem monitoração eletrônica);
c) Atuação da sociedade civil junto ao universo carcerário;
d) Remição de pena pelo trabalho, estudo e leitura;
e) Visitas virtuais e ampliação do direito à comunicação dos reclusos e familiares;
f) Gestão da lotação prisional pela gestão de vagas.

Dossier: Transgressions, conflicts and control [...]

Transgressions, conflicts and control: native people between their own legal systems and the state legal system

Call Dossier Number 04 | Volume nº 02 | Number 2

Coordinators
Dra. Ela Wiecko Volkmer de Castilho (UnB)
Dr. Luiz Eloy Terena (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales)

Assistant Editors
Júlia Silva Vidal (Doutoranda - UnB)
Tédney Moreira da Silva (Doutorando - UnB)

Evaluation period
Until September 30, 2022

Studies about criminal matters involving both indigenous individuals and groups are nearly non-existent in Brazil. This subject first allured attention in the 2000’s when the Brazilian Anthropology Association (Associação Brasileira de Antropologia) first realized the phenomena of indigenous individuals being criminally prosecuted and provisionally incarcerated despite of their ethnical identities. Law scholars, in turn, started reflecting specially on the limits of the criminal liability of indigenous individuals and penalties applicable to them. Other subjects have stemmed out of this theme since. For example, on one side there is the fact that indigenous people contended and have always contended with transgressions of their traditions or state law in their territories; that they have, in fact, created written rules setting the procedures to assess the criminal liability of their community members; that they have imposed penalties; that they have criteria to refer cases to state authorities; that they have policing experiences and that violence against women is conspicuous. On the other side, there is the fact that the criminal legal system operates based on class and racial stereotypes and the integrationist paradigm even after the 1988 Constitution that consolidated the paradigm of cultural diversity.

Accordingly, this paper is submitted with a title created with the aim of covering the largest number of criminological matters: The aim of “Transgressions, conflicts and control: native people among their own legal systems and the state legal system” is to foster the creation of papers, research reports, reviews, case study and photographic records that make these already known and less known themes prominent.  Because criminology is an interdisciplinary science, this paper is open to the knowledge produced in/by the academy in human, social and social applied sciences, and also by the episteme of native people and of other languages, such as drawings and photographs. The criminological perspective we adopted is pivotal and it demands disassembling the categories of the coloniality of power, knowledge and gender, and at the same time building roads to interculturality in terms of the non-domination of one culture over another. In terms of themes, the following is proposed: (i) transgressions of traditions or rules set by native peoples; (ii) how native peoples respond (through procedures and penalties) to such transgressions; (iii) conflicts between traditions/legal systems of the native peoples and the state legal system; (iv) how punishment is managed; (v) how indigenous individuals are held liable and responsible by their own legal system and the state legal system; (vi) anthropological examination; (vi) provisional or definite incarceration of indigenous individuals; (vii) alternate penalties; (ix) restoration practices; (x) violence committed against or by indigenous individuals; (xi) gender violence (rape, domestic and family violence); (xii) indigenous police, (xiii) institutionalized racism, (xii) the use of their native language in legal procedures and their right to an interpret.

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