The Past and Present of Crime Research in Social Forces: How the Sociology of Crime Lost its Roots—And Found Them Again.

This article examines the evolution of crime research published in *Social Forces*, one of sociology's oldest journals, over its centennial history. It traces shifts from early studies focused on juvenile offending, power, and stratification (1940–1960), through a data-driven expansion and the rise of criminology as a distinct field (1960–1990), to research addressing social contexts, inequality, and mass incarceration from the 1990s onward. Using structural topic modeling, the article identifies twelve thematic clusters in crime research, including incarceration and family health, adolescent delinquency, neighborhood effects, race and ethnicity, and punishment. The analysis highlights a return in recent decades to core sociological concerns with inequality and justice system impacts, particularly racial disparities, while noting a decline in individual-level etiology and policy evaluation within *Social Forces* compared to specialized criminology journals.