This book is about values; values in action in the making of theory, the shaping of research and the implementation of policies in practice. Robinson (2011, p 4) describes three usages of the word ‘value’:

• 1. Used as a verb, to value means to esteem or hold in regard.

• 2. Value as a noun refers to the worth, merit or importance placed on, for instance, a particular characteristic or quality.

• 3. Values are also a set of normative beliefs or standards held by a social group.

This book incorporates all of these usages. The first two usages point to estimations, mostly public estimations, of the social worth of criminology and community justice; to use the words first coined by Carrabine et al (2000), they point to the nature of ‘public criminology’. However, in line with many of the chapters in this book, the issues of ‘social worth’ and ‘public valuation’ are immediately problematic and raise issues of whose evaluation of what. To be valued as a resource for governmental policy may be to be dismissed as valueless by those who seek to critique government policy and practices. Loader and Sparks (2011) have explored in depth the nuances and contradictions innate in the role of the public intellectual. These issues point directly to the third usage highlighted earlier, the problem of allegiance (or not), first highlighted by Becker (1967) in his article ‘Whose side are we on?’ This article has provoked and continues to stimulate wide-ranging discussion in the social sciences since its publication (see, eg, Gouldner, 1975; Hammersley and Gomm, 2000; Liebling, 2001; Delamont, 2002; Cohen, 2011). The authors in this volume add their own distinctive contributions to this debate.

The idea for this book emerged from a group of academic staff in one university where criminology is practised (ie taught and researched at theoretical and applied levels); this core group was made up of experienced academics and people new to working in higher education. Some of the group had much experience of applied work in the criminal justice system and some had recently completed research degrees. Experienced and inexperienced writers offered to work together to produce a book that considered the value(s) of criminology and community justice. At this point, The Policy Press became involved and the scope of the book grew and a wider range of authors was recruited.