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Scholarly analysis of criminal law, procedure, evidence, and the legal or ethical issues facing criminal justice system professionals.
The Criminal Law Bulletin is a venue of choice for distinguished legal and social scientific scholars whose work focuses on matters concerning substantive criminal law, criminal procedure, criminal and forensic scientific evidence, or the or the legal, ethical, policy, or practical issues that affect how justice system professionals perform their tasks in policing, crime labs, the courts, and in corrections. We welcome traditional legal scholarship, empirical social scientific analyses, and practical writing on judicial decisions, statutory developments, and other items of interest to judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, court administrators, law enforcement officials in policing and corrections, and criminal justice scholars. We invite unsolicited submissions from faculty, justice practitioners, law students, and graduate students in criminology, criminal justice, and related fields.
Unlike most law reviews, the Criminal Law Bulletin is not a student-edited law journal. Rather, our journal is peer-edited by faculty members in law and criminology. The journal’s acceptance rate varies from 13.54% to 26.14%, with a five-year average (2019-25 to 2024-25) of 19.43%.
Thomson/Reuters publishes four issues of the Criminal Law Bulletin each year. As a result, we are typically able to publish articles within six months of the date of acceptance. In addition to a formal print version, the Criminal Law Bulletin is also published online so that it is accessible via Westlaw and related databases, such as Westlaw Next.
In addition to publishing scholarly articles, the Criminal Law Bulletin reports on all of the major federal and state court decisions dealing with the legal aspects of the administration of criminal justice. The journal also publishes book reviews and practical guidance from regular columnists, including:
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Steven Friedland, Elon University School of Law, who writes on criminal evidence;
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Edward J. Imwinkelried, University of California Davis Law School (emeritus), who writes on forensic science;
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Delores Jones-Brown, John Jay College of Criminal Justice (emerita), who writes on legal and public police developments concerning policing;
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James “Alex” Purdon, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at East Texas A&M University, who writes on recent contributions to the legal scholarly literature;
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James E. Robertson, Department of Sociology and Corrections (emeritus) at Minnesota State University, who writes on annual developments in correctional law in the federal courts system;
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Christine S. Scott-Hayward, School of Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Emergency Management at California State University, Long Beach, who writes on correctional and sentencing law and policy; and
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Christopher D. Totten, Department of Criminal Justice at Kennesaw State University, who writes on criminal law and procedure.