• Origin of Establishment of National Chung Cheng University Crime Research Center

For the past thirty years, Taiwan has been thriving economically. People have been living a prosperous life. However, the criminal problems that poison the society were never fully under control. Not only did the crimes continue to happen, patterns of criminal activities also became more diverse and wicked. Among numerous criminal activities, drug-related crimes, violence-related crimes, organized crimes, and juvenile crimes are the most worrisome types.

Criminal activities may cause great turmoil to the public order. Citizens are put on tenterhooks for sake of their own safety. They also pose as a serious disruption to the moral value of society and the authority power. It is the most urgent topic regarding national security, that the government and private sectors must work together to crack down crimes, restore public order, and keep citizens away from the fear of danger.

Reasons for committing crimes are complicated. Schools and theories have yet come to a consensus for causes of criminal behaviors. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a continuous study or research on criminal behaviors, for looking into the causes of crimes, and providing strategies for crime preventing regulations. There should be more than one aspect for studying criminal behaviors. In order to fulfil the study, we ought to look at it from different angles of behavioral types. By integrating approaches and disciplines such as criminology, criminal policy science, criminal justice study, law study, psychology, social work, counseling, and community study, as well as gathering opinions from scholars and experts, we will be able to reveal and grasp the variety of criminal behaviors in a wider perspective, and profile their characteristics and causes in more details, and furthermore provide corresponding strategy for crime prevention.

National Chung Cheng University (CCU) proudly affiliates departments that are related to criminal issue studies, including Department of Law, Politics, Education, Psychology, Communication, Labor Relations, Social Welfare, and Information Management. CCU is also the first university in Taiwan with Department of Criminology dedicated to crime prevention. Department of Criminology integrates scholars and experts from fields of criminology, law study, psychology, social study, and social work, etc. It is one of the most promising departments at CCU, as well as a department of abundant research accomplishment. In the past, studies of criminology were mostly conducted by one department or scholar independently, instead of collaborated by interdisciplinary integration. CCU, as an academic and educational facility well experienced in criminal studies, should bear more social responsibilities in benefiting the academic development of criminology, promoting the establishment of indigenized criminology theories, and facilitating the international communication and partnership of crime prevention. National Chung Cheng University Crime Research Center was established under such expectations in September 2002, by the advocacy of Professor Shih-Lung Yang, as the fist crime research center in Taiwan, for the purpose of deepening interdisciplinary collaboration and elevating quality and standard of criminology studies.

• Aims and Objectives

The establishment of CCU Crime Research Center is not only based upon current faculty manpower, but also integrated with Department of Law, Department of Politics, Department of Labor Relations, Department of Education, and Department of Information Management. By collaborating related academic and studying resources and expertise, scholars and experts from different backgrounds come together to form a strong studying team, contributing to resolving criminal issues and social problems.

CCU Crime Research Center aims to:

1. Promote the development of indigenized academic studies of criminology, and effective strategy of crime prevention.
2. Plan and promote academic studies of interdisciplinary integration of crime prevention.
3. Plan and promote research collaborations and academic seminars of criminology studies and crime prevention both nationally and internationally.
4. Select and employ outstanding visiting scholars. Meanwhile, besides referencing domestic studies, increase the exposure of CCU Crime Research Center’s database of indigenized studies for international reference and international comprehension, for the purpose of elevating international recognition of indigenized studies.
5. Collect and provide domestic and international journals and publications of criminology studies and crime prevention, as essential information to domestic researchers and investigators
6. Publish academic journals or monographs.
7. Become an entrustee of Ministry of Science and Technology or other public sectors or NGOs for promoting and collaborating academic projects.