About the Journal

Criminological Constructs is a scientific publication, which provides a space for academic debate, focused on disseminating research and written opinion pieces regarding criminological science.

With this, the magazine focuses on various themes that are circumscribed in the modern concept of the discipline; it is this sense: on criminology, prevention, criminal policy, criminology, criminal law and criminal enforcement law, rigorously prepared, from anywhere in the world and without limitation in terms of theoretical or ideological orientation.

The periodicity of the magazine is biannual, with the peculiarity that each issue is convened in January and closes in June; It opens in July and closes in December.

The main language is Spanish, although contributions may also be published in English or Italian, provided that they are accompanied by the corresponding translation into Spanish, which must be provided by the authors themselves. It should be noted that it refers to unpublished collaborations.

The reception of articles for their possible publication in Criminological Constructions is permanent throughout the year, scheduled in the corresponding numbers.

MAGAZINE HISTORY

Since its installation in the University City, in September 1974, the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences would move towards a humanistic vision where the degree in Criminology would be created to house the new Faculty of Law and Criminology. For more than 45 lustrums, the growth of the criminology educational offer has allowed the creation of the Postgraduate (master's and doctorate) as well as an exprofessional space for the development of high-impact research such as the Center for Legal and Criminological Technology Research CITEJyC.

The Legal and Criminological Technology Research Center (CITEJYC) responds to the strategic projects established in the UANL Vision 2012 and in the Institutional Development Plan 2007-2012 with the purpose of contributing to the academic strengthening and scientific research in the legal sciences and criminological. This Center has a close relationship with the judicial, legislative, security, attorney, and public administration sectors both at the local and national levels. It is based on the educational model of the UANL and the new postgraduate model that favors the comprehensive training of professionals, innovation and incorporation into the international dimension.

The Legal and Criminological Technology Research Center dedicates a space to outstanding researchers from the Faculty of Law and Criminology of the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, as well as visiting professors from prestigious national and international academic institutions, with a track record in creating and dissemination of basic and applied science in criminological research, which has allowed the consolidation of strategic alliances with government, professional, business and social sectors.

In this framework, the journal Constructos Criminológicas arises with the objective of disseminating the scientific production related to the topics of criminological science, to become one of the most important open access scientific bets in Latin America, to enter the most scientific indexes. and thus facilitate access to an online platform, facilitate the dissemination of high-impact investigations that contribute to the understanding of the criminological paradigm.

APPROACH AND SCOPE OF THE JOURNAL

Constructos Criminológicas is a journal of scientific dissemination with open access of semi-annual and arbitrated publication, aimed at the dissemination of criminological science that contributes to the understanding of antisocial behavior, to the knowledge of crime prevention models, public and private security, politics criminal, criminology, criminal law and criminal enforcement law. Likewise, the journal is based on the quality of scientific production, based on systematicity and rigor, uses the double-blind methodology (Double Blind Review) in its peer review process, publishes original articles, results of research projects, and bibliographic reviews under the guidelines of the publication standards of the American Psychological Association (APA) in its most recent edition.

Thematic lines:

Prevention
Security
Penal system
Prison system
Interrelated disciplines

PAIR EVALUATION PROCESS

The receipt of an article does not imply its acceptance to be published.

Postulation and receipt of the article: This stage begins with the submission of the article by the author through the OJS (Open Journal Systems) platform.

The author must send the article in Word format, trying at all times to avoid including the authors' data and reference. Once the article is postulated, the receipt of the article and the acknowledgment of receipt are made automatically.

Previous Editorial Review: The editors within a maximum period of 72 hours from receipt will evaluate the submitted articles and determine if they are within the scope of the journal. In this phase, a review is made of the editorial quality and the contribution to the knowledge of the postulated article. Its structure (form and content) is reviewed, verifying that it complies with the publication standard of the American Psychological Association (APA). If the postulated article does not meet the established editorial criteria, the author will be notified of the editorial decision, if, on the contrary, the article passes the previous review stage, it immediately goes to peer review.

Peer Review: This evaluation is carried out under the double-blind method, that is, the article will be sent in complete anonymity. At this stage, two expert reviewers are appointed on the subject, so that, based on editorial policies, and taking into account an evaluation format, they analyze the assigned article. The reviewers will have a period of fifteen (15) days to carry out their respective review. Once the evaluators issue their concept, it is communicated to the main author. If the article was not accepted by the peers, it is communicated in a subtle way to the main author. If the article was accepted with some suggestions, the anonymous evaluation is sent to the author to make the respective adjustments.

Editorial Review (after peers): The editor will verify in detail that the authors have made the corrections suggested by the peers.

Style review: Once the editor has verified that the corrections have been made, they will proceed to send the style correction. At this stage, the proofreader will take care of the writing and style aspects of the text.

Translation: After the style correction, in the case that the article is sent only in Spanish language, it will be sent to an expert in the English language to make the respective translation of the abstract and the keywords.

Layout (Edition): This stage seeks to guarantee the aesthetic appearance of the article by adapting the spaces, the typography and the colors.

Final editor review: Final approval is granted by the editor.

Publication: The articles are in the final stage of the process, ready to be published.

GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS

Extension and Types of Work

Articles

The articles must be original and unpublished works, and they will not be in the process of evaluation or compromised in any other publication; They must be referred to the issues expressed by the magazine. Its length will be between 5,500 and 10,000 words, including the text of tables or tables, maps, graphs, figures, references and notes, scientific articles must contain, at least, the following sections: Title, Abstract of maximum 250 words, Words Key (Spanish and English or, Spanish and the original language of the author (English, French, Italian and Portuguese). Introduction, Theoretical Framework, Methodology, Results, Conclusions, Proposals and Cited Works. Tables, Graphs and Figures will be included in the body of the document duly titled and with the reference of the original source The maximum number of participants in each article will be 4 researchers, who must be duly identified.
The authors will have a maximum of fifteen business days to make the respective corrections in each review (preliminary review, peer review and final adjustments).
Item reviews and evaluations are determined by the number of items on the waiting list. The editorial committee will inform the authors about the progress of their work in the evaluation and editing process.
The editorial committee of the journal reserves the right to make the style correction and editorial changes that it deems necessary to improve the work.
All articles must be sent without the information of who the authors are; Detailed information on the authors of the article should be in the metadata section of the journal platform.

Investigation reports

Research reports describe the results of applied research, be it quantitative, qualitative, or mixed. Its length will be between 4,000 and 5,000 words, it must include the following sections: Title (Spanish and English), Summary of maximum 250 words (Spanish and English), Keywords (Spanish and English), Introduction, Theoretical Framework, Methodology, Results, Conclusions and Cited Works.

Reviews (2)

With an extension of no more than 2,000 words, the texts in this section consist of reviews of recent books, magazines or academic publications and are obtained by express invitation of the editorial committee of the journal Constructos Criminológicas. The journal extends an invitation to publishers or authors interested in seeing their publications reviewed to contact the Editor directly.

 

STRUCTURE FOR THE PRESENTATION OF ARTICLES

Title: It should clearly reflect the objective of the research and it is recommended that it be concise, specific and informative.

Summary: It will have a maximum of 250 words, All your information must come from the text of the article. Avoid verbatim citations, abbreviations, and bibliographic references.

Keywords: Between 3 and 5 descriptive terms that represent the main content of the article. They should facilitate the consultation in databases, consult Thesaurus according to the corresponding subject. They can be compound words. This classification can be consulted at: http://vocabularies.unesco.org/browser/thesaurus/es/

Abstract: It is the same abstract in English in 10-point calibri font. A space line must be left between the abstract paragraph and the Key Words line.

Keywords: They are the same 3 to 5 keywords in the English language.

Introduction: There must be coherence between the title, objective and results stated in the article. The problem, the problem question and the general and specific objectives, the definition of its variables, the limitations, the scope, the justification of the subject and the antecedents with citations in the APA Standard with the most updated version are presented.

Development of the Work: You must make correct use of the language and its grammar. You must keep strict correspondence with the other sections of the work. The internal organization must be coherent and balanced. The contribution of the authors of the article must be clear. Copyright must be respected. In this section, the methodology, results and limitations must be indicated.

Tables, Tables and Graphs: Tables must be numbered consecutively. Like the figures, which must be numbered independently from the tables. Each table or figure must be accompanied by a legend that clearly describes the material. The titles must give an account of the content of the information. Tables, figures and photographs must be original from the author (s). If they are modifications or reproductions of another article, it is necessary to accompany them with the permission of the corresponding editor. Tables, graphs, tables, images and other elements must be included in the body of the text in an editable format or attached in the original programs in which they were made.

Conclusions: They should not constitute a repetition of the results. The conclusions should be a thoughtful reworking of the results with a high level of abstraction. It is different from a final thought. Dating should be avoided.

References: The list in alphabetical order of the identification data of the sources cited in the article, will be located at the end of it and in all cases follows the American Psychological Association APA Standards, latest version. It must include all the necessary information that allows the reader to locate the documents cited in a text.

The information must be exact, as it appears in the original document. They should have recent bibliographic references and periodical scientific publications. The list of references is made with 1.5 line spacing, each one must have French indentation and must be organized according to the alphabetical order of the last names of the authors of the sources.

To reference the number of volumes of a publication, it is necessary to use Arabic and non-Roman numerals. All authors cited in the body of an article must be referenced at the end. An author who has not been cited in the text should never be referenced and vice versa.

GENERAL FORMAT FOR JOBS TO EVALUATE

Extension: Its extension will be between 5,500 and 10,000 words, including the text of tables or tables, maps, graphs, figures, references and notes.

Typography: Calibri 12 points

Format: Justified

Line spacing: 1.5, eliminating spaces before and after each paragraph.

Margins: 2.5 on all four sides

Sheet: Letter Size

Epigraphs: They are numbered consecutively.

Footnotes: Numbered consecutively, restricting them to the minimum necessary. Electronic sources are not cited in these notes.

Tables, Graphs, Figures and Images: They must be numbered consecutively and the source of origin must be cited. What corresponds to this section must be presented in an editable format, not an image. You can use the tools of Word, Excel and Paste Special.

The tables are not presented with vertical lines and the numbering and title are indicated in the upper part

Title: 14-point Calibri letter in Spanish and English.

Summary: Calibri font 10 points.

Abstract: Calibri font 10 points.

Keywords: Calibri font 10 points in italics.

Keyword: Calibri font 10 points in italics.

Document Body: Calibri font 12 points, 1.5 spacing, justified format without first line indentation, numbering titles, subtitles and tertiary titles, as appropriate.

Cited Works: Font Calibri 10, respecting italics according to APA format.

Citations and Bibliography

The bibliographic citations inserted in the text will adhere to the most up-to-date APA standards, inserting in parentheses the first surname with the first letter in capital letters, followed by the initial of the name, the year of publication and the page number / s (in the case of verbatim quotes).

Example: (Cabello, P., 2012: 85).

When citations comprise less than 40 words, it is required to enclose them in quotation marks. If the quotation appears in the middle of the sentence, immediately after closing quotation marks, the source is incorporated in parentheses, with the year of publication and the number of page / sec., Then continue with the sentence.

When the quotation comprises 40 or more words, they are displayed in a separate block from the text and the quotation marks are omitted. The quote begins on a new line and an indentation of approximately 2.54 cm is inserted. At the end of the citation, the source is inserted in parentheses, followed by the year of publication and the page number / s.

Example:

Destructivity is by no means the only option available to man to face the problems and challenges of his existence. Here, too, history shows us that in all civilizations, cultures and societies there has been no lack of people and groups who, far from choosing destructiveness as a norm of conduct, have opted for ways of being and acting in a constructive order, based on friendship and love. spirit of harmony to solidarity and mutual help (Saña, 2010: 237).

Single Author Works

If the author's name appears as part of the exhibition, only the year of publication will be cited in parentheses:

Example: Gómez (2017) “determined that the basic principles of modern science make reference” (p. 385).

If the citation closes the referenced text, then the last name is inserted in parentheses at the end, followed by the initial of the first name, the year of publication and the page number / s.

Example: "The basic principles of modern science refer to specific forms of production" (Gómez, J., 2017, p. 385).

Multiple Author Work

When a work has two authors, both names must be cited each time they appear in the text.

Example: (González, C., & Rivera, P., 2008, p. 168).

When the citation is of three, four or five authors, all authors must be cited the first time they appear in the text and in subsequent times only the last name of the first author will be included followed by the abbreviation et al. (Without italics and with a final period after al) and the year.

Examples:

González, Núñez, Hibrón and Ochoa (2017) when the quote begins the paragraph.
González et al. (2017) in subsequent paragraph opening citations.
(González, Núñez, Hibrón and Ochoa, 2017) when the quote is inserted between a paragraph or at the end of it.
(González et al., 2017) in subsequent citations between paragraphs or at the end of it.

Cited Works

At the end of the article, the list of works cited with full references in the established APA format will be indicated.

They will be arranged in alphabetical order of surnames.

If there are several citations from the same author and for the same year, the works will be differentiated by consecutive lower case letters after the year (a, b, c, d…).

Example:

(Gutiérrez, L., 2018a.)
(Gutiérrez, L., 2018b.)

Electronic resources will be cited in a separate section mentioning: Author, year, title, type of resource, date of publication and date of consultation.

 

Tables, Tables, Maps, Graphs and Figures

All inclusions of these characteristics must be numbered consecutively (1, 2, 3,…); They will be identified with a brief title and the source of consultation and the year must be indicated.

The images will be presented in jpg or png format.

Open access policy
This journal provides immediate open access to all its contents, based on the principle that offering the public free access to research helps a greater global exchange of knowledge. Therefore, the journal does not charge fees for the processing of articles (No APC) nor does it charge fees for the publication of its articles.

 

Ethical statement on publication and good editorial practices
The journal Constructos Criminológicas is committed to the scientific community to guarantee the ethics and quality of the articles published. Our journal is based on the Code of Conduct and Good Practices defined by the Publications Ethics Committee (COPE) for editors of scientific journals (http://publicationethics.org). At the same time, it guarantees an adequate response to the needs of readers and authors, ensuring the quality of what is published, protecting and respecting the content of the articles as well as their integrity. Responsibilities or behavior of:
The editor

Take care of the impartiality both in the reception of the articles and in the failure of the evaluation.
Act at all times in accordance with the editorial criteria and the editorial line.
The academic review of articles is governed by the blind peer system, so the journal undertakes to take care of the anonymity of authors and reviewers.
Criminological Constructs is financed with public resources and adheres to the open access philosophy; therefore, its content is not for commercial purposes, which is guaranteed at all times by the editorial team.
The editorial team is in a position to clarify doubts to authors and reviewers in the review and editing process.
The editorial director guarantees that he will make the results of the opinion process known exclusively to the authors, through the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform.
Plagiarism behaviors are not admitted in Criminological Constructs, in this sense, articles are evaluated with specialized software. Any case detected will imply the rejection of the article, which will be notified to the authors of the article and will not be given the possibility of submitting another manuscript in the journal.
In the cases that are required, the magazine will publish the corresponding and necessary clarifications and corrections.

The authors

Authors must guarantee that the articles are the product of their original work as researchers and that the data presented has been obtained in an ethical manner, so they must send the letter of originality and guarantee that they do not infringe copyright.
The article may not be totally or partially submitted to another publication.
Authors may not submit redundant publications, meaning when two or more documents share the same data, hypotheses, discussion points or conclusions.
Those works in co-authorship must have a justification that expresses the full consensus of adherence to the guidelines of all the authors involved.
Authors must guarantee strict adherence to and acceptance of the editorial criteria established by Constructos Criminológicas.
It is the obligation of the authors to respect the authorship of all the sources that have been used in the elaboration of their article; therefore, you must provide accurate data from bibliographic, newspaper, electronic, and other data collection techniques. You also agree not to omit any significant material.
Address the observations of the editorial and academic opinions in a timely and clear manner.
Incurring any breach of the above points constitutes unethical and unacceptable conduct; consequently, the proposed article will be eliminated and not considered for publication; likewise, the author may not be considered for any activity related to the magazine.

Reviewers

They must commit to maintaining the confidentiality of the information related to the articles they evaluate.
They cannot make any kind of dissemination or distribution of the information presented in the article they evaluate until the moment it is published by the journal.
They undertake to carry out the opinion in an objective, impartial, responsible and rigorous manner.
Demonstrate willingness to clarify doubts and all matters related to compliance in each of the stages that comprise the opinion process.
When incurring in any fault to the previous points, the magazine reserves the right to provide proof of its membership in the portfolio of arbitrators.

Academic inbreeding

In accordance with international standards, Criminological Constructs tries to avoid academic inbreeding in the articles it publishes. Consequently, it will only publish a maximum of 40% of articles whose author or co-author is someone whose main institutional affiliation is the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, taking into account the total number of articles to be published in all sections of the journal.

The priority of publication of the articles will be established according to the date on which they are approved.