NCJ Number
192095
Date Published
2001
Length
48 pages
Annotation
This article examines the relation between criminology and authority and the influence of the relationship on the scientific substance of the field.
Abstract
The state of criminology as a discipline does not leave much space for those who do not wish to become "clergymen of the system." Its interrelationship with authority--at both the theoretical and applied level--is today more apparent than ever. The subjects of crime and its control are intrinsically political ones. The conceptual construction of crime and the criminal, as well as the ways in which they are managed and controlled, are the outcome of social, political, and administrative processes. The state plays an important role in defining crime and then applying the definition in the social and political arena. Criminology, at least in its mainstream version, engages in the study of the consequences of such applications, perceiving them as real, value-free entities. Thus, the criminal and his behavior become cognitive categories, the proper subjects of a discipline which seeks to unravel the hidden codes of such behavior, in order to reduce the persistently enduring rates of crime. The historical study of the phenomenon of crime, as well as of the criminological discourse, reveals the significance of social control for the political system. The reluctance of positive criminologists to acknowledge the political character of their subject matter has become disturbingly dangerous in the last decades and has resulted in the doctrines of "administrative" criminology, and all its consequences: intensified social control, expanding social exclusion, and prison overcrowding. Notes, references