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an introduction to criminology
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Part One: What is Crime?Lecture One – Introductions
Reading
Newburn (2017) Ch.1
Case et al. (2021) Ch.2
Morgan and Smith (2017) ‘Delivering More with Less: Austerity and the Politics of Law and
Order’ in the Oxford Handbook of Criminology, Ch.6
Garland and Sparks (2000) ‘Criminology, Social Theory, and the Challenge of our Times’
British Journal of Criminology v40/2: 189
Hay and Farrall (2010) ‘Not so Tough on Crime’, British Journal of Criminology, 50/3: 550-567
Garland, D. (2001) The Culture of Control (Oxford University Press).
Xenakis and Cheliotis (2019) ‘Whither Neoliberal Penality? The Past, Present and Future of
Imprisonment in the US’, Punishment & Society, 21/2: 187-206.
What is Criminology?
“Criminology is the body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon. It
includes within its scope the processes of making laws, of breaking laws, and of
reacting towards the breaking of laws…The objective of criminology is the
development of a body of general and verified principles and of other types of
knowledge regarding the process of law, crime and treatment.” (Sutherland and
Cressey (1960) Principles of Criminology, Philadelphia: Lippincott)
• Criminal law constitutes the prohibition by the state of conduct perceived to be harmful
or problematic. Treats it as an offense against the state rather than the individual
victim. The conduct is seen as deserving of moral and symbolic censoring approbation.
• Attracts a lot of public and official concern and it can lead to severe punishment.
Crime is not a single coherent category:
, • there’s a vast amount of differentiation in terms of severity, wrongfulness, and
harmfulness. Also, an administrative category. Arguments as to what may substitute as
crime may be important but not necessarily made on very principled grounds- they’re
heavily contested. De-facto bad generally.
• The decision to whether criminalise something or not criminalise something can often
be a very political one.
• The majority of crime is very low level stuff; 90% doesn’t even go to courts.
1: Criminology is all about crime
The nature of the discipline:
2: Criminology views crime as a social phenomenon: a product of the society
in which it is encountered. It is also influenced by what happens in society at
large. One effect of that is that it is socially contingent- the status of things can
change over time and the drives can be quite diverse. Social trends also affect
the way in which crime is handled, categorised, and dealt with.
3: Criminology has a broad scope
4: Criminology seeks general and verified principles: criminology usually
seeks for explanations. Often take 2 different kinds of shape. Create an overarching
theory and then try and apply that to something more precise or focused. Other way:
something more empirical and scientific; build that data and get a sense of what the
bigger picture might be.
Not only is the capacity to do that perhaps contested: how scientific you can be about these
things but also how much you should be is very much contested. Crime is not constant as it is
a social phenomenon.
Garland and Sparks (2000) – ‘criminology’ incorporates three elements:
1: A scientific and modern academic discipline
2: Government policy and practice
3: Public opinions and political arguments
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