NCJ Number
139095
Journal
International Annals of Criminology Volume: 27 Issue: 1/2 Dated: (1989) Pages: 37-55
Date Published
1989
Length
19 pages
Annotation
Crime and criminology are both experiencing crises, resulting in varied approaches by criminologists to contribute to knowledge and policymaking.
Abstract
Official statistics indicate both increasing criminality, decreasing clearance rates, expansion of criminal justice systems, and counterproductive results in most Western countries. Internally, criminology is also experiencing a crisis on both the empirical and theoretical levels. In response, criminologists have used either a dogmatic strategy that greatly increases research efforts, a strategy of focusing purely on criminal justice policy even without research findings, and a theory-building strategy. An alternative approach is to dissolve the basic stereotypes and ideas of criminological thinking. Two further approaches are to expand the focus to areas such as victimology and unreported crime and to install an expanded approach into broader analyses of humans and society. 54 references