The primary aim of the fourteenth biennial conference is to exchange views, concepts, and research findings among scientists, researchers, and practitioners from the broad area of criminal justice practice, research and development thereof in the last two decades. The conference will highlight new ideas, theories, methods, and findings in a wide range of research and applied areas relating to contemporary criminal justice and security issues.

The Biennial International Conference Criminal Justice and Security in Central and Eastern Europe is subtitled The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – Rural and Urban Safety and Security Perspectives. To ensure effective implementation of security and safety, reforms, strategies, and policies ought to be driven by knowledge, facts, identified problems, and research expertise. With the aim to identify good practices and research this year’s proposed Conference theme covers a wide range of topics related to the policing strategies and criminal justice policy development, implementation, reforms, and research.

Submission Guidelines

All contributions must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference. The following categories are welcome:

• Abstracts. A deadline for abstract submission is March 31, 2023. The authors will receive a reply from the conference organisers no later than April 20, 2023.
• Full papers. You are encouraged to submit your full paper(s) by September 1, 2023. Selected papers are going to be peer-reviewed and included in the conference proceedings, Journal of Criminal Investigation and Criminology, and Journal of Criminal Justice and Security.

List of Topics

Any topic related to the UN 17 SDGs, urban and rural perspectives in relation to the following topics, especially on:

• Deviance, crime and crime control
• Policing, criminal justice and other social reactions on crime
• Community, evidence-based, problem-oriented and intelligence-led policing
• Fear of crime and feelings of safety
• Prisons and probation
• Crime prevention
• Victimization surveys
• Public, media and security
• Implementation of local criminal justice and security policies
• Traditions of criminal justice, criminology and security research
• Follow-up and evaluation research in criminal justice and criminology
• Plural policing - local government law enforcement and private security
• Rural criminology and its development

Committees

Program Committee

• Gorazd Meško, Chairman of the Programme Committee

Members:

• Marcelo Aebi, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
• Igor Bernik, University of Maribor, Slovenia
• Matt Bowden, Technological University, Dublin, Ireland
• Avi Brisman, Eastern Kentucky University, USA
• Janina Czapska, Jagellonian University, Poland
• Algimantas Čepas, Law Institute of Lithuania, Lihuania
• Joseph F. Donnermeyer, Ohio State University, USA
• Charles B. Fields, Eastern Kentucky University, USA
• Irena Cajner Mraović, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Hrvaška
• Jack Greene, Northeastern University, ZDA
• Djordje Ignjatović, University of Belgrade, Serbia
• Ljubica Jelušič, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
• Klara Kerezsi, National University of Public Service, Hungary
• Miklós Lévay, Eötvös Loránd University, Madžarska
• Michael Levi, Cardiff University, UK
• Kyle Mulrooney, University of New England, Australia
• Elmedin Muratbegović, University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Hercegovina
• Borislav Petrović, University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Hercegovina
• Biljana Simeunović-Patić, University of Criminal Investigation and Police Studies, Serbia
• Julian Roberts, University of Oxford, UK
• Ernesto Savona, Catholic University and Transcrime, Italy
• Wesley Skogan, Northwestern University, USA
• Kreseda Smith, Harper Adams University, UK
• Nigel South, University of Essex, UK
• Andrej Sotlar, University of Maribor, Slovenia
• Justice Tankebe, University of Cambridge, UK
• Bojan Tičar, University of Maribor, Slovenia
• David Wall, Leeds University, UK
• Ralph Weisheit, Illinois State University, USA

Organizing committee

• Anže Mihelič, Chairman of the Organizing Committee
• Ajda Šulc, Secretary

Members:

• Vanja Erčulj, University of Maribor, Slovenia
• Barbara Erjavec, University of Maribor, Slovenia
• Ivo Holc, Ministry of the Interior, Police, Slovenia
• Rok Hacin, University of Maribor, Slovenia
• Boštjan Lindav, Ministry of the Interior, Police, Slovenia
• Violeta Malić, University of Maribor, Slovenia
• Boštjan Slak, University of Maribor, Slovenia
• Aleksander Podlogar, University of Maribor, Slovenia
• Andrej Rupnik, Institute DCAF, Ljubljana, Slovenia
• Anja Zahirović, University of Maribor, Slovenia

Invited Speakers

• Dr. Joseph F. Donnermeyer is a professor emeritus in the School of Environment and Natural Resources at The Ohio State University and an adjunct professor at both the Center on Research on Violence at West Virginia University and the Centre for Rural Criminology at University of New England. He holds the title of “Academy Professor” as a member of the OSU Emeritus Academy, and served in 2019-2020 as chair of the Academy’s Steering Community.
• Dr. Matt Bowden is a Senior Lecturer (Sociology), School of Social Sciences, Law and Education and former Head of Research, Faulty of Arts & Humanities TU Dublin. Dr Bowden’s research interests are in the sociology of crime and security governance with particular interest in questions of space (urban / rural). More recent work has focused on the fracturing of bureaucratic police organisations and the formation of security fields. Current funded research projects include Post-Brexit Security Field on the Island of Ireland (BORDEX). Dr Bowden is also researching on policing and security related topics on security and consumption, security fields in west Africa, rural security in Ireland, and on issues of policing culture and habitus. Matt is series editor with Alistair Harkness for Bristol University Press ‘Research in Rural Crime’ book series, and is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences at the University of New England, New South Wales, Australia. Dr Bowden is a founder member of the TU Dublin Security Research Group and a senior member of the European University of Technology’s Culture and Technology Lab (ECt+). He is former Treasurer (2012-2017) and Vice-President (2017-2018) of the Sociological Association of Ireland and is a member of the Social Sciences Committee of the Royal Irish Academy (2022-2026).
• Dr. Kreseda Smith researches agricultural crime, farmer mental health, behavioural science, and modern slavery/human trafficking within agriculture and the agri-food chain, supervising PhDs in modern slavery/farmer decision-making. Recent publications include the psychological impact of agricultural crime, and how agricultural crime compares to other recognised farmer stressors. She co-Chairs the Rural Criminology Working Group for the European Society of Criminology, is an ISSRC Executive member, a Research Associate of the Centre for Rural Criminology at University of New England, a member of the Midlands Anti-slavery Research Collaboration, Lecturer in Land and Information Skills, and Senior Researcher in Harper Adams University’s Rural Resilience Research Group (3RG).
• Dr. Gorazd Meško is Professor of Criminology at the Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security, University of Maribor, Slovenia. He teaches Criminology and Victimology (undergraduate), Criminology and Crime Control Policy (M.A.) and Comparative Criminology (Ph.D.). His research interests include crime control, crime prevention and provision of security, delinquent behaviour and legitimacy of formal social control institutions. He is currently a lead researcher in a project on Local Safety and Security in Slovenia – Urban and rural perspectives (2019-2024).

Venue

Conference will be held at the Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security, University of Maribor in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Faculty address: Kotnikova ulica 8, 1000 Ljubljana. 

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to Gorazd Meško (Chairman of the Programmee Committee) at gorazd.mesko@um.si or Anže Mihelič (Chairman of the Organizing Committee) at anze.mihelic@um.si.