Educational backgrounds of most-cited scholars

There are many factors affecting the intellectual terrain of criminal justice. Among these is the educational background of influential scholars. A list of influential scholars was created by using those previously recognized as most-cited in the criminal justice literature. A glimpse at their educational backgrounds was accomplished through Dissertation Abstracts and it was determined that thirteen institutions were the source for the terminal degrees of 65.1 percent of the most-cited scholars in the field The institutions providing the scholars were located primarily in the east and midwest, and 60.6 percent of the scholars had their terminal degrees in sociology. On the basis of this overview, it was concluded that there has been a concentration in the educational source of scholars in criminal justice. Sociology has been heavily represented among most-cited scholars, and those with degrees in criminal justice and criminology appear much less frequently. In addition the geographical concentration of institutions from which degrees were received tended to exclude institutions from the southern region of the country. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved