Critical criminology is a well-established criminological orientation. It encapsulates a wide spectrum of different perspectives, which are based on a multitude of world-views, theoretical backdrops, methodological approaches, and research goals. It is the main aim of this thesis to analyse the development from the so-called radical criminology to the establishment of various critical criminological perspectives.
First, the relationship between radical and critical criminology is briefly explained. Then, we examine radical criminology’s main theoretical foundations. In the main section, we explore the key reasons for radical criminology’s rise to prominence in the late nineteen sixties, its main ideas, their “radical” nature and the main theoretical and thematical differences through different western countries. In the following section, we explore the subsequent fall of radical criminology’s influence in conjunction to the almost simultaneous rise of the various perspectives loosely labelled as “critical criminology”. The analysis is placed in the context of the neoliberal and neoconservative backlash of the late nineteen seventies and early eighties. Through the main critiques levelled at radical criminology, I try to illustrate its internal and ideological crises. In the following subsections, we briefly review the three most influential critical criminological perspectives that had arisen mostly as a response to radical criminology’s early demise. The thesis ends with a summary of the main issues discussed and a short critical assessment thereof.
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