Gorazd Meško

Short Resume

Gorazd Meško, Ph.D., is a Professor of Criminology at the Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security, University of Maribor, Slovenia. His research interests are crime prevention, safety and security in local communities, legitimacy of criminal justice and victims of crime, and especially the development of rural criminology in Europe. He is the author of criminological articles covering comparative criminology, rural criminology, environmental crimes, feelings of safety/fear of crime, policing and crime prevention. His recently (co)edited books include Rural Criminology in Global Perspective: State of the Art on the World’s Continents (in print, 2025) - The UN Sustainable Development Goals and Provision of Security, Responses to Crime and Security Threats, and Fair Criminal Justice Systems (2024), Mapping Victimological Landscape in the Balkans (2020), Water, Governance and Crime Issues (2020), Trust and Legitimacy in Criminal Justice: European Perspectives (2015), Handbook on Policing in Central and Eastern Europe (2013), and Understanding and Managing Threats to the Environments in Southeastern Europe (2011).

Title of the presentation

Criminal Justice and Security in Central and Eastern Europe Conference (1996-2025) and Introduction to This Year’s Conference

Abstract

The conference Policing in Central and Eastern Europe was organized for the first time in 1996. The first conference was subtitled Comparing Firsthand Knowledge with Experience from the West, followed by Organizational, Managerial, and Human Resource Aspects (1998), Ethics, Integrity, and Human Rights (2000), Deviance, Violence and Victimization (2002), Contemporary Criminal Justice (2004), Past, Present and Future (2006), Practice and Research of Social Control (2008) and Unconventional Deviance (2010). The conference was renamed to Criminal Justice and Security in 2012. Topics discussed were Contemporary Criminal Justice Practice and Research (2012), Understanding Professionalism, Trust and Legitimacy (2014), Safety, Security and Social Control in Local Communities (2016), From Common Sense to Evidence-based Policy-making (2018), Rural and Urban Security and Rural Criminology (2021, online due to COVID-19 pandemic) and The UN SGDs and Responses to Crime and Security Threats, and Fair Criminal Justice Systems (2023). The title of the 2025 conference is New Risks, Crime, Policing, Courts, Prisons and Security in the Post-COVID-19 Times. The following topics are discussed: Contemporary Uncertainties, Comparative Criminology and Criminal Justice, Safety and Security in Contemporary Society, Police, Policing and Research, Legitimacy of Policing and Criminal Justice, Cyber Criminology and Cyber Security, Green Criminology and Criminal Investigation.

Keywords

criminal justice, security, criminology, conference, topics