Journal profile · CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice
ISSN 1043-9862 · eISSN 1552-5406 · SAGE
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice: CAS Zone 4 · Sociology (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 1.44; hybrid open access; APC about USD 3,650; 48 articles in 2025; indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice is published by SAGE and is in Zone 4 of Sociology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Crime Patterns and Interventions, Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis and Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance, together about 46.4% of its articles. Its main subfields are Sociology and Political Science. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice (CCJ), published quarterly and guest-edited by an expert in the topic being studied, focuses on a critical issue in contemporary criminal justice in order to provide a cogent, thorough, and timely exploration of the topic. Authoritative, balanced examinations on a variety of critical issues in criminal justice … | View full journal description
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United States 3 (3 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Crime Patterns and InterventionsSocial Sciences21.8%
- Criminal Justice and Corrections AnalysisSocial Sciences14.8%
- Crime, Illicit Activities, and GovernanceSocial Sciences9.7%
- Policing Practices and PerceptionsSocial Sciences5.7%
- Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual OffendingPsychology5.4%
- Homelessness and Social IssuesHealth Professions4.2%
- Wildlife Conservation and Criminology AnalysesEnvironmental Science3.8%
- Qualitative Research Methods and EthicsSocial Sciences3.2%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Sociology Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Criminology & Penology | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Sociology Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Criminology & Penology | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Sociology Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Criminology & Penology | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SSCIScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor
- 1.44LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 1.4Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher)
- 1.6Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 1.9LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.37LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.09LetPub ·
- h-index
- 78OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 489OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 1.39OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 0%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 18.64%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 45LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 3Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 1,409 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 20 | 6 | 6 |
| 2025 | 48 | 18 | 23 |
| 2024 | 40 | 24 | 121 |
| 2023 | 40 | 11 | 297 |
| 2022 | 53 | 9 | 96 |
| 2021 | 35 | 12 | 606 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
- Peer review
- Double anonymous peer reviewPublisher website
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Hybrid open accessLetPub
A subscription journal in which authors can pay to publish their article open access.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAlex | USD 3,650 / GBP 2,676 | — | — | |
| Publisher website | Yes, amount not published | — | — |
A hybrid journal charges the APC only when the author chooses open access; publishing under the subscription model is usually free.
Other charges and waivers (author guidelines)
- Other fees
- No other fees
- Page charges
- No page charges
- Submission fee
- No submission fee
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare2 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≤ 200 words
- Reference style
- APA
Article types accepted1
- reviewThe Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice is a theme-based journal. Authors are asked to review the upcoming themes and submit relevant manuscripts directly …Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints, Trial registration / reporting guidelines
- Authorship Authorship
Please view our authorship policies, which includes information on criteria for authorship, who should be the corresponding author and more. Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability
Email alerts available for new content Model summary
The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages. Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to: Share your research data in a relevant public data repository Include a data ava…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Ethical considerations
Please include your ethics approval statements under this heading, even if you have already included ethics approval information in your methods section. If ethical approval was not required, you need to explicitly state this. All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board approved th…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Publishing fees and open access
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal. Optional open access publishing is available for a fee via the Sage Choice program, and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. Open Access agreement …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal: Identity transparency: Double-anonymized Reviewer interacts with: Editor Review information published: None Your manuscript will undergo an initial evaluation. If it does not conform to the requirements laid out in these guidelines, it will be returned to you for amendments prior to peer review. Manuscripts may be desk rejec…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism Plagiarism
The journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Please read Sage's complete policy on plagiarism and the actions we may take.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
The journal does not accept submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Trial registration / reporting guidelines Clinical trial registration
The journal endorses the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first participant enrollment. However, consistent with the AllTrials campaign, retrospectively registered trials will be considered if the justification for late registration is acceptable. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be …
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- SAGE
- ISSN
- 1043-9862
- Electronic ISSN
- 1552-5406
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice
What CAS zone is Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice is in Zone 4 of Sociology, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Criminology & Penology. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Sociology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 1.44; CiteScore 1.9, h-index 78.
What are the manuscript requirements of Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 200 words; Reference style: APA. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Where are the editorial board members of Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice based?
Of the 3 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (3). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice is indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Is Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice open access, and what is the APC?
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC about USD 3,650.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, Publisher website; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-25). Last updated: .