Norman E. Taylor
It is with great pleasure and pride that I open this issue of the Journal with the official introduction of our new Contributing Editor Community (CEC). I wrote more about the rationale for this in my recent Editor’s Corner piece in our newsletter, The Dispatch. I will not repeat much of that background here. Sometimes it is best to let things speak for themselves. Each name below is hyperlinked to the editor’s bio. Please welcome:
Since our launch five years ago last month, the mission of our Journal has remained focused on research and innovative practice characterized by meaningful collaborations across and among such diverse disciplines as overall health, mental health, public health, child development and education, social services and employment, substance use and addictions, and all aspects of the criminal justice system, including policing, prosecutions, and corrections; an emphasis on victim-centred, trauma-informed, restorative, inclusive, and socially equitable practices; and ongoing attention to the well-being needs of service providers themselves.
During our recent virtual meeting of the full Journal team, it was remarkable to hear the extent to which each of these new CEC members has manifested this same interdisciplinary commitment in their own career. Their origins, perspectives, life experiences and professional achievements are diverse. Some of their careers already span decades, and some are still emerging. In addition to guiding the peer-review and editorial processes for our submissions, each will also serve as an excellent ambassador for the knowledge-sharing mission of our Journal across their varied networks of policymakers, practitioners, scholars, and researchers in their respective fields.
By all accounts, the recent fully virtual 6th International Law Enforcement Public Health (LEPH2021) Conference was another great success. Our Journal team was pleased to both contribute to and participate in the learning and global interaction. The hosts, the organizers, and a rich body of contributors proved again that the pathways to systemic reform and social equity will be best forged where sectoral perspectives converge and where collaboration across disciplines fuses rather than divides the insights and efforts needed to overcome the stickiest problems we face. The response to our themed call for papers was robust, and we are pleased to feature several articles related to the conference in this current issue, in our upcoming September issue, and likely beyond that. We extend our thanks to those who responded with their high-value submissions, and our CEC team and our reviewers continue to work with authors to ensure as many as possible reach a readiness for publication soon.
We have also been greatly encouraged by a continuing growth in regular submissions not tied to the conference, and in fairness to those contributors, this and subsequent issues will continue to feature a blended assortment of papers.
Our open call for papers is ongoing. Our open access commitment and our social media enhancements, recently announced in The Dispatch, will expand the reach and reception for your works. And our new team of Contributing Editors will ensure that our mission is heard more widely so that more and more voices are brought into this global conversation about better ways to achieve community safety and well-being, everywhere.
The author has continuing business interests that include providing advisory services to communities, police services and related human service agencies.
*Editor-in-Chief.
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Journal of CSWB, VOLUME 6, NUMBER 2, June 2021