The American Society of Criminology (ASC) is an international organization whose members pursue scholarly, scientific and professional knowledge concerning the measurement, etiology, consequences, prevention, control, and treatment of crime and delinquency. The organization has it roots in a series of informal discussion groups that sprang up in the 1930s under the loose direction of former Berkeley, California police chief and then University of California-Berkeley professor, August Vollmer. The Society was formally organized as the National Association of College Police Training Officials in August Vollmer's home in Berkeley in December 1941. The Society was re-organized and took on its current name, in the Fall of 1957 in Los Angeles.
Today, the American Society of Criminology comprises approximately 3,700 members from more than 60 countries. It is the largest professional criminological society in the world. Members include practitioners, academicians, and students in the many fields of criminal justice and criminology. Roughly 60 percent of the membership is made up of university professors who engage in social and behavioral science-based criminological research. Students comprise approximately 30 percent of the membership, and employees of public and private entities another ten percent. Membership in the American Society of Criminology is open to any who wish to advance the interests of the field.
The Society publishes a newsletter, The Criminologist, and two journals. The journal Criminology has been published since 1963. It is generally regarded as the leading journal in the field, and is distributed widely. The journal Criminology & Public Policy has been published since 2001. It is devoted to the study of crime and justice policy, with the objective of strengthening the role of research in the formulation of public policy in this arena. Six of the 11 Society divisions also produce and distribute publications. The Society holds an annual meeting that attracts some 4,500 attendees from roughly 50 countries. Society offices are currently located on the campus of The Ohio State University, where they have been since the mid-1960s.