Criminology 211 Essay
This essay topic consists of two main components. The first requires you to demonstrate your knowledge of and a familiarity with the theory/perspective and the second requires you to demonstrate an understanding of its application (in either policy or practice) and the impact of its application.
i) Briefly identify the main features and concepts of radical criminology. ii) Critically discuss the ways in which the various radical perspectives challenge existing ideas about crime and justice.
Radical criminology made its appearance on the criminological and sociological field in the 1960s and early 1970s on a scene of social and political development and sometimes, unrest. The theory, channeled through work by British criminologists Paul Taylor, Ian Walton and Jock Young, stood as questioning already established notions of crime and justice from the very beginning, with its unfamiliar foundations on a variant of Marxism known as Instrumental Marxism. The sharp theories of this school disfigured the previous ideas of crime and the justice system of given societies, held by the followers of Classicism, Individual Positivism and Sociological Positivism, and highlighted an alternative way of studying social phenomena such as criminal behaviour and activities. This paper will seek to distinguish the main points of radical criminology and also illustrate the areas of previous schools that radical perspectives had a differing opinion on.
Radical criminology (sometimes known as Critical criminology) can be seen as the hypernym for a series of criminological approaches mainly listed as labeling theory, conflict theory, feminist theory, new critical theory and radical theories from a Marxist perspective (Taylor, Walton, & Young, 1973). One of these perspectives, known as Instrumental Marxism, provides
Bibliography: Bradley, T., & Walters, R. (2011). An Introduction To Criminological Thought. Auckland: Pearson Education. Hogg, R., & Carrington, K. (2013). Critical Criminology: Issues, debates, challenges . Oregon: Willan Publishing. McLaughlin, E., & Muncie, J. (2005). The Sage Dictionary of Criminology (2nd Edition ed.). London: Sage. Siegal, L. (2010). Criminology, The Core. Lowell: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Taylor, I., Walton, P., & Young, J. (1973). The New Criminology. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Unknown. (n.d.). Cesare Lombroso. Retrieved 4 10, 2013, from New World Encyclopedia: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Cesare_Lombroso