Mankind has been struggling to find social order and justice since the earliest times. Throughout human history, philosophers have contemplated the best ways to build safe and just social and political systems. However, the study of crime and justice did not become an independent academic discipline until the middle of the last century. In the last three to four decades, criminology and criminal justice has been one of the most rapidly developing academic disciplines in social sciences around the world. Today, these programmes are offered at many leading universities, including the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Toronto. The rapid growth of criminology and criminal justice is driven by students’ strong interest in issues of crime, justice, law, public safety, and forensic science. It also reflects growing employment opportunities in law enforcement, corrections, courts, and security industries. It was against this backdrop that the University of Macau (UM) established a postgraduate programme in criminology in 2009. In less than five years, the programme has become one of the best and largest in Asia. It now has more than 40 master’s students and 12 PhD students. The programme has assembled a distinctive group of faculty members with strong publication records in leading academic journals in criminology and criminal justice. The faculty has assumed leadership 撰文English text │李德Spencer Li De 中文翻譯Chinese translation│陳靜Ruby Chen 當科學遇見社會秩序與公正── 澳大的獨特學科 Where Science Meets Social Order and Justice–A Unique Programme at UM 自古以來，人類就通過 種種努力，力求建立公 平公正的社會秩序。縱 觀人類發展史，哲學家 和思想家們無一不苦苦 思索，試圖找到建立安 全公正社會政治制度的 最好方式。然而，直到 上世紀中，對犯罪和司 法的研究才成為一門獨 立的學科。在過去三、 四十年間，犯罪學與刑 事司法是全世界社會科 學領域發展最快的學科 之一。今天，包括劍橋 大學、牛津大學、賓夕 法尼亞大學和多倫多大 學在內的很多領先學府 都提供這方面的課程。 犯罪學與刑事司法的迅速發展主要歸功於學生對犯 罪、司法、法律、公共安全和法醫學等問題的濃厚興 趣，也反映了在執法、矯正、法院及安防行業不斷增 長的就業機會。 正是在這樣的背景下，澳門大學於2009年建立犯罪 學研究生課程。在不到五年的時間裡，該課程已發展 成為亞洲規模最大最優質的課程之一。目前，該課程 擁有40名碩士生和12名博士生。該課程的絕大多 數教學人員均在犯罪學與刑事司法領域的領先學術期 UMAGAZINE ISSUE 10 54 學院專欄．FACULTY COLUMN
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