Reflections on the social responsibility of criminology (and other social sciences)
All citizens, including social scientists, have to take responsibility for the quality of social life. This article explores how criminology can do so. Basically, three dimensions are advanced: (1) the intrinsic quality of the research methodology, which is wider than the traditional positivist approaches, (2) the autonomy of research, which does not exclude research in cooperation with governments, and (3) the commitment to the quality of social life, which is not contradictory to the concern for high level scientific research. The main social mission of criminological research is to feed the public democratic debate on crime and security issues in society.