Ch 12. Critical Criminology

Question 1

attempts to draw attention to the hidden/overlooked injustices scattered throughout the world. It highlights inequalities, discrimination, and suffering.

Answer 1

Critical Criminology

Question 2

How is critical criminology different from all other theories?

Answer 2

Critical Criminology takes the system to task rather than tinker with its parts. They critique is a means to a transformative (just) end.

Question 3

criticizing the system isn’t constructive, it doesn’t offer a solution while…

Answer 3

…critiquing the system is constructive because it offers a solution

Question 4

Emergence of Critical Criminology were from The New Criminology in 1973 with the following focusees: who were they from?

1.understand socio-cultural context of cr

2.structural/political-economic dimensions that produce criminal behaviour.

3. relationship between crime + prevailing mode of production.

4.Questions the role of power and conflict in shaping crime and criminal justice.

5.Engages in a materialist analysis of the development of law in capitalists societies.

6.Takes a dialectical approach to analyzing how individuals both influence and are influenced by dominant social structures.

Answer 4

Taylor, Walton, and Young

Question 5

Any attempt to shape behaviour according to some social norms, for a variety of ends, draws attention to non-state constructions of criminality. There are hidden ways to track/monitor people to obey social norms.

Answer 5

Governmentally
(Michael Foucault)

Question 6

Power (Michael Foucault) (4)

Answer 6

1. Is not a quantity that can be possessed.
2. Is relational, evident only when exercised.
3. Produces reality, and
4. Is thus not just negative, but creative.

Question 7

Foucault says that power operates on us everywhere, always because of…(2)

Answer 7

1. Discipline (ensures constant subjection/obedience) and
2. Surveillance (direct/indirect observation of conduct)

Question 8

Term Foucault uses to show how a disciplinary concept brought to life in the form of a central observation tower placed within a circle of prison cells.

Answer 8

Panopticon

Question 9

Beck is concerned with the identified risks in modern society because risk- based strategies do not take into account the…

Answer 9

…context in which different risks developed. If you’re considered “risky” society punishes you before you act. (ex. car insurance companies for young men)

Question 10

(Beck) In a risk society, we want to control/manage risk instead of dealing with the root issue. It’s not preventative. Why did this influence critical criminology? (2)

Answer 10

1. Social problems become risks to be managed, not solved (that is, structural causes are not considered).
2. Risk thinking transforms CJS practices.

Question 11

Social problems are no longer considered issues requiring solutions, but risks to be managed. In the “risk society” eventualities can be calculated and thus managed. Risk of victimization can be mitigated in accordance with risk factors.

Answer 11

Beck’s Risk Society Theory

Question 12

The social world is divided into many fields (“artistic” field, “economic” field, etc.)
and each field is a space of conflict and competition where competitors vie for control. The field/rules favour the powerful.

Answer 12

Bourdieu’s Field Theory

Question 13

qualities are valuable within a specific field, some of which depend on one’s position in the structural arrangements of society

Answer 13

capital (field theory)

Question 14

Language is infinitely complex. Deconstruction attempts to uncover silences in discourse and intends to expose what is really going on in/through language.
(ex. what do we mean by “justice”? - why don’t we think about it as people having human rights?)

Answer 14

Derrida’s Deconstruction Theory

Question 15

a set of durable dispositions acquired through experience that allow someone to achieve a “feel for the game” in a given field. An actor’s ability to display competence in a field depends on this

Answer 15

habitus (field theory)

Question 16

who took a take on Bourdieu’s Field Theory and sought to identify the symbolic, cultural, & economic factors that empower dominant actors to create & apply criminal categories

Answer 16

Wacquant

Question 17

(deconstruction theory) Silent/Absent element of language that gives words an essential part of their meaning. Underlies all language

Answer 17

Trace

Question 18

small and mundane relations of governance with an appreciable effect on human behaviour (ex. traffic lights, lanes, signs)

Answer 18

Micro-Powers
(Foucault’s Governmentality)

Question 19

Idealists VS Realists in critical criminology

Answer 19

idealists’ inquiry into crime is from abstract premises (like Marxist theories) whereas realists use empirical work (surveys) for their premises. idealists are also criticized by realists for minimizing working-class crimes & romanticizing criminals

Question 20

(beck) statistical calutlations of risk across time + groups

Answer 20

acturial

Question 21

Deconstructing the word “community”

Answer 21

“Community” is a term in the Youth Criminal Justice Act that is inherently exclusionary

Question 22

Deconstructing the word “justice” (4)

Answer 22

• most commonplace understanding is “vengence”
• many injustices are done in pursuit of “justice”
• justice is not an existing reality/entity
• justice is an ideal + promise

Question 23

• because of the obscure + abstract nature of critical criminological theorizing, some find it difficult to discern a call to action in the theoretical language.
• does critical criminology fetishize theory & disguise meaning behind difficult language?

Answer 23

criticisms of contemporary critical criminology