CRM 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Crime Prevention, Victimology, Participatory Democracy
5 Jun 2018
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Department
Course
Professor
Critical Criminology
● Critical criminology combines a wide range of concerns from across the more radical
approaches, such as Marxism and Feminism
● It develops a left-wing criminology that is relevant and appropriate for contemporary
society
● Critical criminology is generally oppositional to conventional criminology and many
contemporary policy developments in the field of criminal justice
● It is a natural intellectual and strategic partner of both Left Realist and restorative
approaches
● The perspective retains a strong socialist orientation
● Emphasizes the causal significance of capitalism in the generation of and responses to
“crime”
Left Realism:
● This perspective focuses on the social causes of crime and interaction between
agencies of social control, the offender, the victim, and the public
● It draws strongly on the concepts of relative deprivation and countercultures
○ Relative deprivation- not just being in the group of the “have nots” but it's the
experience of having “not” and being aware of what other experience
○ Seeing what other people have a realizing you don’t have it
Social Context:
● There is some confusion and debate surrounding the term “critical” criminology
● The term describes a wide range of theoretical and political positions but broadly
speaking espouses an anti-capitalist position
○ Context that we’re in now, it’s been marked by rapid change, wealth and power
are increasingly concentrated into fewer hands on a global level
● New social movements emerged
○ Such as gay and lesbian rights groups, human rights advocates, etc.
The “Risk” Society (Beck 1992):
● Describes new forms of risk related to technological change and globalization of
economic, political, and social relationships resulting in:
○ Ontological insecurity- feeling of physical and psychological risk due to rapid
changes
○ Individualization- the process by which individuals are made more responsible for
their well-being
● Social protections that were achieved within welfare states are eroding
○ Within the “risk” society, there are new meanings, methods, and locations of
social control
○ Bureaucratization and “responsibilization”
● There are a series of global threats to life
○ Pollution, global warming, crime
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Critical Criminology
● Rational choice assumptions expand in the “risk society”, and engagement with the
punitive rationale for criminal justice now works to increase surveillance and scrutiny of
both the wrongdoers and those who have been wronged
Critique of how “risk” is defined--Consider child welfare:
● “An alternative definition of risk could examine the risks inherent in our failure to provide
adequate health care, housing, schooling, food distribution, and jobs for citizens. Rather
than focusing on ‘risky decisions’ of individuals, a revised risk assessment for child
protection might focus on political and economic decisions of sitting governments and
transnational corporations that put children at risk” (Swift and Parada, 2004)
Two General Trends within the Critical Criminology Literature:
1. Structural approach- tends to focus on power as ingrained in social structures that
manifests itself in institutional action and activities of interest groups
○ Crime is defined in terms of oppression
■ Vulnerable groups- working class, women, ethnic minority groups,
indigenous people
○ Focus of analysis:
■ Primary task is to expose the nature of power relations
■ Crimes of the powerful
● In particular, ideology, political economy, the state
■ Crimes of the less powerful
● Experiences specific to a particular segment of the population
(such as different forms of criminality are linked to different
groups, for example, women or ethnic minorities)
○ Cause of crime:
■ The growing disparities between the rich and poor are linked to offending
behaviour
■ For the powerful, crime is caused by pressures associated with securing
and maintaining state power
■ For the less powerful, crime is caused by marginalization in society and
an increase in criminalization (such as police response to crime)
○ Nature of the offender:
■ Linked to a social context, which is structurally determined (such as the
trend toward the most vulnerable in society, being the most highly
represented in the criminal justice system)
○ Responses to crime:
■ Based on social empowerment
● Redistribute social resources based on social need and equity
● Engage in participatory democracy (such as involving people in
decisions about their future)
● The recommendations of the Truth and reconciliation Commission
are illustrative of a structuralist response
○ Crime prevention:
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Critical criminology combines a wide range of concerns from across the more radical approaches, such as marxism and feminism. It develops a left-wing criminology that is relevant and appropriate for contemporary society. Critical criminology is generally oppositional to conventional criminology and many contemporary policy developments in the field of criminal justice. It is a natural intellectual and strategic partner of both left realist and restorative approaches. The perspective retains a strong socialist orientation. Emphasizes the causal significance of capitalism in the generation of and responses to. This perspective focuses on the social causes of crime and interaction between agencies of social control, the offender, the victim, and the public. It draws strongly on the concepts of relative deprivation and countercultures. Relative deprivation- not just being in the group of the have nots but it"s the experience of having not and being aware of what other experience. Seeing what other people have a realizing you don"t have it.
