Abstract:

The dismantlement of apartheid in the early 1990s necessitated substantial changes to higher education in South Africa since minimal resources were invested in former non-White universities and those in Black territories. Exclusionary legislation resulted in generations of potential academics and researchers either having been denied quality education or having been subjected to inferior higher education. In this presentation we shed light on transformation in Criminology by focusing on the Acta Criminologica, the only academic journal in South Africa dedicated to the discipline. The journal has been published for the past three decades and this study provides unique insights into published research and transformation developments in Criminology. The sample of 191 articles represents seven four-year intervals spanning 1993 to 2017. The aim of the study was to investigate trends in terms of the race, gender, university affiliation, status of institutions under apartheid, and the research methods used by authors who publish(ed) in the journal. The composition of the editorial teams and editorial boards at the respective intervals was also determined given the position of influence held by journal managers. In terms of the global sample, 66% of publications were by male and 75% by White academics/researchers. The greater proportion of articles (43%) was published by staff affiliated to the university that publishes the journal and 83% originated from former Whites-only universities. Nearly half of all articles (45%) were non-empirical in nature. When race and gender were combined as one variable, trend analyses show several statistically significant shifts which, at face value, appear to favour transformation in publications by a more diverse pool of Criminology faculty. However, and with the composition of editorial teams and boards in mind, closer inspection of the results reveals finer nuances that confirm the reality of “sticky floors and glass ceilings” still facing particular profiles of Criminology academics/researchers in South Africa. Strategies to empower side-lined voices will be discussed.

Keywords:

South Africa, universities, transformation, Criminology, Acta Criminologica.