Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences

The Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) is an international association established in 1963 to foster professional and scholarly activities in the field of criminal justice and criminology. ACJS promotes criminal justice and criminology education, policy analysis, and research for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.

The purpose of ACJS is to promote a forum for disseminating ideas related to issues in education, policy, practice, and research within the field of criminal justice and criminology.

By the early 1960s, the American Society of Criminology (ASC), as an organization, had become more focused on the sociological theories of crime causation. Those who had helped to create the organization in order to represent higher education in policing felt left behind. The police professors felt separated from the theoreticians, and they began to discuss amongst themselves what options were available to them. Because there were no longer enough police professors to change ASC from within, as evidenced by the Denver ASC conference, the police professors needed a catalyst for bringing them together to form a new organization. That catalyst came in the retirement of Professor V. A. Leonard from Washington State College (now Washington State University-Pullman). After acknowledging Leonard’s retirement, discussion turned to the best way to recognize both Vollmer and Leonard’s legacy and the answer was the creation of a new organization, one that was rooted more closely to police science than theoretical criminology: a new organization of police professors. The retirement party for V. A. Leonard in Pullman, Washington, had turned into the first annual conference of the new organization: The International Association of Police Professors (IAPP),.

Also, in order to recognize exceptional police science students, the National Criminal Justice Honorary Society, Alpha Phi Sigma (APS), was established. APS was founded by Dr. V. A. Leonard shortly after accepting a position in the Department of Police Science at Washington State University (WSU) in January 1942 ). By 1976, APS grew to 14 chapters. However, it was not until 1976 that ACJS recognized APS as its Criminal Justice Honorary Society and the two organizations partnered together. A few years later in 1978, APS and ACJS held their annual meetings in conjunction with one another, a practice that is still continued today.

ACJS has approximately 2,800 members representing every state in the United States, many countries, and virtually every institution of higher education with a criminal justice/criminology program. ACJS members are scholars who are international in scope and multidisciplinary in orientation, professionals from all sectors of the criminal justice system, and students seeking to explore the criminal justice field as future scholars or practitioners. Aside from belonging to the national organization, members also can belong to regional organizations of ACJS. ACJS is broken up into five regions: the Northeastern Association of Criminal Justice, the Southern Criminal Justice Association, the Midwestern Criminal Justice Association, the Southwestern Association of Criminal Justice, and the Western Association of Criminal Justice.

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