NCJ Number
184237
Journal
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice Volume: 16 Issue: 3 Dated: August 2000 Pages: 272-292
Date Published
August 2000
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This analysis of theory related to the political and economic factors underlying crime and justice proposes the theory called the social structure of accumulation theory as a flexible model for analyzing how patterns of crime and practices of justice change with historically contingent conditions.
Abstract
The political and economic processes subsumed under the term "globalization" are remaking nearly every facet of social life, including patterns of crime and justice. Nevertheless, most criminological theory focuses on the etiology of individual crime causation or on failures in local institutions and gives little attention to the role of larger-scale sociological factors. The need exists to develop theoretical and methodological strategies that include the impact of structural change on patterns of crime and justice. Social structure of accumulation theory offers a useful model for incorporating current macro-social changes into theory and research in criminology. Thus, changes in labor regimes and related shifts in the balance of placating versus repressive control strategies had crucial roles in shaping crime problems and patterns of justice in the 20th century. 59 references (Author abstract modified)