The Korean Institute of Criminology (KIC), which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2019, aims to summarize and uate the research achievements that have been carried out during the last 30 years in order to identify the status and the role of the KIC as a national research apparatus. While KIC has published various reports in criminology and criminal law, in this research, we particularly focus on studies from criminology.
In Part Ⅰ, we identified major research areas of the studies conducted and published by KIC and analyzed the trends of the reports. Over the past 30 years, KIC has published 523 reports of criminological research, accounting for 48% of 1,084 total reports in KIC. The research subjects were classified into four major research areas: 'actualities of crime', 'juvenile crime and delinquency', 'criminal victimization', 'crime prevention and countermeasures'. In addition, we assessed the research trends of 30 years of criminological studies, identified the challenges in the field of criminology, and analyzed 446 additional reports funded by various external sources.
From Part Ⅱ to Part Ⅳ, we reviewed criminological research in KIC by categories: actualities of crime, juvenile crime and delinquency, criminal victimization, and crime prevention and countermeasures. Specifically, we provide summaries, uations, implications, and challenges for each subcategories. In Part Ⅱ, we examined the achievements and challenges of actualities of crime research. This category includes researches on causes of and trends by the types of crime and its countermeasures. In Part Ⅲ, we reviewed the achievements and challenges of studies on juvenile crime and criminal victimization. This category includes research on juvenile delinquency, juvenile justice, minority crime, and criminal victimization. Part Ⅳ examines the achievements and challenges of studies on crime prevention and countermeasures. This category includes crime prevention, correctional policies, and prevention of recidivism.
As mentioned above, the current study critically reviews and assesses the criminological reports from KIC over the past 30 years. It also provides valuable insights from the past studies and various suggestions for the future research in the field of criminology.