A few like-minded academics and police officers established the Pakistan Society of Criminology (PSC) in Sept 2008 and got it registered with the provincial government of Khyber Pakhunkhwa (Registration No. DSW/NWFP/2988) with the following aims and objectives:
• Promoting the scientific study of crime, deviant behaviour and delinquency, and of criminal justice processes.
• Bringing together in
one multi disciplinary society persons actively engaged in research, teaching and practicing in field of criminology.
• Bringing together academics from across the social sciences in the country with interest in crime and criminal justice, and to use that enhanced capability to undertake research on topics relevant to Pakistan's criminal justice needs and their international implications.
• Building important strategic relationships with government institutes, police colleges and academies and other academic and public sector research and policy groups.
• Forging a collaboration with law-enforcement agencies and people involved in the criminal justice system of the country to facilitate cooperative working and knowledge exchange.
• Engaging high quality research colleagues for interdisciplinary and cross-institutional research on various topics with a range of collaborators.
• Collecting, compiling and analyzing data on important social issues for evidence-based policy options which should lead to a knowledge-based governance and understanding.
• Providing training facilities and a forum for all trainers and workers who are involved in protection of children rights, women’s rights and minority rights, and for all those working to promote awareness, advocacy and education on democracy, justice, equality and freedom.
• Establishing a high standard of education in security and criminological studies which will be a positive and fruitful addition to our existing educational system.
• Working for an umbrella institute for capacity-building courses for all stakeholders involved in law-enforcement and the administration of justice.
• Working to introduce educational programmes in discipline of criminology, criminological research and justice education.
• Creating future scholars and researchers in the discipline of criminology and criminal justice education through proper academic courses and training.
• Providing facilities for rehabilitation, counseling and reintegration of victims of crimes and situations.
• Working academically on integrating national and international efforts on organized crimes, especially terrorism, sectarianism, drugs, corruption, money-laundering, cyber-crimes, transnational crimes and criminal justice reforms.
• Promoting interfaith dialogue, inter and intra religious harmony, world peace and tranquility and human progress at local, national and international levels. The PSC soon afterwards launched its website, and made efforts to get permission from the government for quarterly publication of the Pakistan Journal of Criminology. The aim of both of these initiatives was to promote the idea of criminology, develop a culture of indigenous criminological research, provide a forum for academic interaction and dialogue amongst the different stakeholders of the criminal justice system and to reduce, if not bridge completely, the gap and trust-deficit between researchers and practitioners. The PSC has been successful in some of its efforts in the last three years. As mentioned earlier, PSC launched ten issues of PJC from its founding in April 2009 until July 2011. Hopefully, the PSC will maintain the continuity in the publication of its journal, the first of its kind in the country, and which is increasing its size and readership. Future special issues are planned on drugs and anti-narcotic policies, policing terrorism and radicalism, gender-responsive policing, and human rights, minorities and death penalty, mostly with foreign guest-editors. The Pakistani media is also giving a considerable recognition to the efforts of Pakistan Society of Criminology. It will draw a significant attention of the researchers and readers from all over the world.
