In today's globalized society, an international exchange of ideas and views is indispensable within the field of social sciences, including criminology and criminal justice studies. The research group Governance of Security (GofS) fosters contemporary international discourses on issues of crime and crime control. In 2008, GofS started a research paper series, combining theoretical and empirical articles on issues reflecting the research activities of GofS. This research group is a collaboration between Ghent University and Ghent University College in Belgium. GofS concentrates its research around the study of administrative and judicial policy that have been developed with respect to new issues of crime and insecurity. The GofS series - Governance of Security Research Papers (GofS) - is published by Maklu Publishing (Belgium). Contemporary Issues in the Empirical Study of Crime - Volume 1 of GofS's series Governance of Security Research Papers - includes the following: Drugs and Crime: Are They Hand in Glove? A Review of Literature * The Study of Public Expenditure on Drugs: A Useful Evaluation Tool for Policy * Corporations as a Blind Spot in Research: Explanations for a Criminological Tunnel Vision * The Nominal Group Technique: A Participative Research Technique Holding Great Potential for Criminology * Analytical Criminology: A Style of Theorizing and Analyzing the Micro-Macro Context of Acts of Crime * The Geography of Social Cohesion and Crime at the Municipality Level * Disentangling Neighbourhood and School Contextual Variation in Serious Offending: Assessing the Effect of Ecological Disadvantage * Itinerant Crime Groups: Mobility Attributed to Anchor Points? * Patterns of Drug Use Before, During and After Detention: A Review of Epidemiological Literature.