Facing change: new directions for critical criminology in the early new millenium?
The following article examines the process of self-reflection that has characterized critical criminology over recent years. It is argued that this process of 'narcissistic contemplation' has resulted in a confused range of responses to the study of crime and crime control. Since the mid-1...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2002
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| In: |
Western criminology review
Year: 2002, Volume: 3, Issue: 2 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Keywords: |
| Summary: | The following article examines the process of self-reflection that has characterized critical criminology over recent years. It is argued that this process of 'narcissistic contemplation' has resulted in a confused range of responses to the study of crime and crime control. Since the mid-1970s, critical criminology has been characterised by a range of dramatic and often paradigmatic changes that have taken it from the bounds of social reaction theory and Marxism to its contemporary expression as a project focused on deconstruction and governmentality. Generally, critical criminology has been left battered and bruised by the ebbs and flows of politics, history and theory over the past few decades, and it remains ontologically confronted by the perennial challenge of 'relevance.' Rather than engaging in yet another round of fruitless 'reactive reflexivity,' a way forward for critical criminology might be to reconsider its role in relation to the discipline as a whole and to ally itself even more closely with progressive social movements. The alternative is to remain tied to endless introspection or to become absorbed too readily into the realist and correctional agendas of government. |
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