crim-workflow

Criminology Workflow Router (crim-workflow)

The orchestrator for a Criminology submission. Figure out the stage and the article type, then

send the user to the matching skill. Criminology is the **interdisciplinary flagship of the American

Society of Criminology — the router's first job is to make sure the paper advances a theoretical

or measurement contribution** about crime, not just a finding about a crime dataset.

When to trigger

• Starting a new Criminology paper and unsure where to begin
• Mid-project and unsure which skill applies next
• Deciding between a full Article and a Research Note
• Returning with a decision letter (route to crim-rebuttal)

First question: which article type?

| Situation | Type | Route to |

|-----------|------|----------|

| Full original study advancing theory/measurement | Article | normal pipeline below |

| One focused, self-contained contribution | Research Note | normal pipeline, tighter scope |

| Re-examining / reproducing a published finding | replication-style study | crim-research-design + crim-data-and-transparency |

| Prospective design, data not yet collected | preregister first | crim-data-and-transparency (preregistration) early |

> If your design is prospective, lock the pre-analysis plan before you see outcomes — that is what

> protects against the "fishing" critique expert reviewers will raise.

Routing map (stage → skill)

Idea / fit?                       → crim-topic-selection
Where does it sit in the field?   → crim-literature-positioning
What's the theory / mechanism?    → crim-theory-building
Is the design defensible?         → crim-research-design
Are the analyses sound?           → crim-data-analysis
Are the exhibits clear?           → crim-tables-figures
Does it read for criminology?     → crim-writing-style
Data + transparency ready?        → crim-data-and-transparency
How will it be judged?            → crim-review-process
Ready to submit?                  → crim-submission
Got an R&R / decision?            → crim-rebuttal

Default order

`topic-selection → literature-positioning → theory-building → research-design → data-analysis →

tables-figures → writing-style → data-and-transparency → review-process → submission → rebuttal`

Iterate: most criminology papers loop theory ↔ design ↔ analysis several times (e.g., refitting a

trajectory model or recidivism survival) before writing-style.

Anti-patterns

• Treating Criminology as a place for a bare crime-data correlation with no theoretical payoff
• Forcing a quantitative template onto qualitative or ethnographic work (the journal is interdisciplinary)
• Choosing the Research Note type for a paper that needs a full Article's evidentiary load
• Leaving the data/transparency package until acceptance instead of building it as you go

Symptom-to-skill triage (route by the complaint you heard)

Reviewers, advisers, and co-authors describe problems in their own words; the router maps each phrase to

the skill that fixes it. These are the recurring flags for the ASC flagship.

| What was said | Underlying gap | Route to |

|---------------|----------------|----------|

| "atheoretical / just a finding" | mechanism not built | crim-theory-building |

| "selection / not causal" | identification weak | crim-research-design |

| "official records, not offending" | measurement validity | crim-data-analysis |

| "missed key work / wrong debate" | positioning | crim-literature-positioning |

| "belongs at CPP" | scope/fit | crim-topic-selection |

| "can't reproduce this" | transparency | crim-data-and-transparency |

A Research Note routes through the same chain with a tighter scope; the pack does not encode a numeric

cap, so check it against the journal's current submission guidelines before committing to the type.

Router pass for Criminology

Treat this skill as an executable review pass, not a prose hint. First lock the crime/justice process, measurement validity, research design, and policy consequence; then judge whether the current manuscript answers the venue's real reader: criminology reviewers who expect theory-linked crime, justice, or harm mechanisms plus transparent measurement.

• Do the pass: Run the pack as a sequence: fit gate, evidence gate, writing gate, source-map gate, and final output contract; stop when a gate lacks evidence.
• Return a ledger: give claim / evidence / risk / manuscript location rows, so the next agent can edit rather than rediscover the issue.
• Sibling guard: compare against Justice Quarterly for applied justice, Journal of Quantitative Criminology for methods focus, Social Problems for broader sociological framing; if a sibling owns the contribution, recommend re-routing before polishing format.
• Stop condition: do not give submission-ready advice until the pack's resources/official-source-map.md has been checked for volatile rules and the manuscript has one concrete fix for the largest venue-specific risk.

Output format

【Stage】idea / positioning / theory / design / analysis / exhibits / writing / transparency / review / submit / rebut
【Type】Article / Research Note / replication-style
【Route to】crim-<skill>
【Why】one line
【Then】the next skill after that

Supplementary resources

• [../../resources/external_tools.md](../../resources/external_tools.md) — crime data + criminology software by method
• [../../resources/official-source-map.md](../../resources/official-source-map.md) — official Criminology / ASC / Wiley URLs behind every fact in this pack