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Critical Criminology
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Critical Criminology
Visions from Europe

November 1997 | 304 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
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Criminology is under attack for its seeming shift away from the theoretical debates towards empirical, administrative-led research. In Critical Criminology, RenT van Swaaningen warns that if criminology is to keep advancing as a discipline there is an urgent need for the resurgence of a theoretical perspective. He believes that by examining critical criminology within a European framework, a new critical perspective in the search for alternative visions of justice will emerge. Through a comprehensive historical and contemporary analysis of critical criminology throughout Europe, the author argues that critical criminology theories must be reassessed and reapplied in light of current trends within criminology and criminal justice. By placing central themes from current politics of law and orderùsuch as crime prevention, safety, and the victimÆs positionùin a framework of social justice, Critical Criminology concludes that critical criminology theories illuminate our understanding of both crime and the institutions constructed to attempt its control.
Jock Young
Preface
 
Introduction
 
The Value of Comparative Criminology
 
The Early Criminological Critique of Penal Reform
 
Precursors of Critical Criminology
 
The Patchwork of European Critical Criminology
 
Criminal Justice as a Social Problem
 
The Radical Penal Lobby in Europe
 
What Has Happened to Law and Order?
 
`Newer' Criminologies and Social Safety
 
The Role of Law and Social Justice
 
Conclusion

`This is an excellent text that should be set

reading on criminology and criminal justice degree courses. It should also be read both by critical criminologists and by those who maintain that these criminologists do not do 'real' criminology. The level of scholarship and depth of analysis in this book provide a striking challenge to such antediluvian attitudes' - British Journal of Criminology

`This is an impressive, critical and wide-ranging narrative which will both delight and divide academic criminologists on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond' - International Journal of Police Science & Management

`The book justifies Van Swaaningen's claims about the value of a comparative perspective, and there will be few British readers who are not a good deal clearer about contemporary European criminology at the end of the book than at the beginning' - David Smith

'This is an impressive, critical and wide-ranging narrative which will both delight and divide academic criminologists on both sides of the Atlantic, and beyond. It also sets out to give new meaning and purpose to activists in penal reform. This is an impressive contribution to the literature on critical criminology which will take some time to digest, not least because its comparative nature reveals some of the cultural limits of comparative analysis.' Mick Ryan