WCCSJ is a major initiative which brings together academics from seven Welsh universities to encourage inter-institutional collaboration to generate high quality, theoretically informed, policy-relevant research on crime and social justice in Wales and beyond.  It also seeks to add value to policy-making and practice by fostering regular communication and debate between academics and members of governmental, public, private and third sector organisations.  This includes organising conferences, workshops, training and other events. WCCSJ was initially funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales.

The WCCSJ welcomes as associate members individual staff from public, private or third sector agencies who have an interest in research or evidence-based criminal justice or social policy.  It also welcomes staff and students in relevant disciplines from universities both outside and inside the core consortium universities.

From its administrative hub in University of South Wales this close collaboration between the Universities in Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, Cardiff Metropolitan (UWIC), Glyndŵr, Swansea and University of South Wales is designed to achieve and sustain a landscape change in the structure, quality and scale of crime and justice-related research emanating from Wales.