ABSTRACT
The awareness of the need for a Handbook of European Criminology emerged during a board meeting at the European Society of Criminology in Barcelona in May 2009. So, in June 2009, during the final conference of the network CRIMPREV, 1 Sophie Body-Gendrot asked a panel of non-British criminologists and sociologists of law which handbooks they used, either for teaching or for their own research. From their answers, it appeared that they relied heavily on a large number of Anglo-American handbooks. We all agreed that such books are essential. Yet, as observed by David Nelken, these books reflect ‘an Anglo-American tendency to assume that what others do in foreign places and foreign languages is less important and that they … are bound to come into line eventually’ (2009: 294).
