About the Journal

Focus and Scope

South African Crime Quarterly (SACQ) is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal that promotes professional discourse and policy-relevant research on crime, criminal justice, crime prevention, and related issues. While its primary focus is South Africa, articles that reflect analysis from other African countries are considered if clearly relevant to the South African context.

SACQ is an applied policy journal aimed at policymakers, criminal justice practitioners, researchers and analysts across sectors. It seeks to inform and influence public debate and policy on crime reduction, violence prevention, and criminal justice.

Each edition includes an editorial and at least four articles, the majority of which are original research. Most issues also feature an interview on a topical issue in criminology or public policy.

SACQ is accredited by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training. It is published as a fully open-access journal with no article processing charges (APCs) or submission fees.

For more on editorial policies, peer review and publication ethics, please consult our Policies page.

Indexing/Listing

SACQ is indexed/listed by the following:

• AJOL
• Crossref
• DHET Accredited
• DOAJ 
• Open Archives Registry
• PKP Index
• SABINET
• SciELO SA
• SHERPA/RoMEO 
• University of Illinois OAI-PMH Data Provider Registry
• Web of Knowledge (WoK)

Usage and Impact

Statistics are generated through OJS, as well as all other platforms indexing SACQ. Access selected statistics at:

• Crossref (in process)
• Google Analytics (Editor/Journal Manager only)
• Google Scholar Metrics
• Google Scholar Citation Metrics
• SACQ on OJS (Editor/Journal Manager only)
• SciELO SA Metrics

Source: Google Scholar Citations Profile

Sources of Support

SACQ is hosted using OJS, made available by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf).

Journal History

SACQ has its origins in 1997, when the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) partnered with Business Against Crime to create an accessible publication on crime in South Africa. This led to the launch of the Nedcor ISS Crime Index, published six times a year and initially funded by Nedcor. The Human Sciences Research Council and Transparency International soon joined as partners.

In 2000, the publication was renamed the Nedbank ISS Crime Index. After Nedbank’s withdrawal in 2001, the ISS relaunched the journal in 2002 as South African Crime Quarterly, with a quarterly publishing schedule.

SACQ was accredited by the Department of Higher Education and Training in 2010. It has remained fully open access since its inception. In 2015, SACQ joined the Academy of Science of South Africa’s publishing platform and was subsequently indexed on SciELO, African Journals Online (AJOL), EBSCO and Sabinet.

The ISS served as host and publisher until 2017. In 2018, editorial responsibility shifted to the Centre of Criminology at the University of Cape Town. The ISS resumed editorial oversight in 2025.