BY MICHAEL J. LYNCH, PH.D. AND RAYMOND MICHALOWSKI
REVIEWED BY: ALABA OLUDARE, Ph.D.
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY
ITTA-BENA, MS 38941.
Radical criminology started in the 1960s as an attempt to explain criminal behavior and the justice system with the use of class conflict. The notion of radical criminology later expanded to include race, gender and culture as means of understanding crime and the justice system. According to Lynch and Michalowski, pre-existing theories do not sufficiently address the recent realities of crime and justice as impacted by the variables of class, race, gender and culture. Effective studies must question the common beliefs that: (1) men are more likely to commit crime than women (ii) minorities are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system (iii) crime is more prevalent among the lower class (iv) society criminalizes some harmful behaviors while tolerating other bad conducts (v) there are differences in law and justice practice among nations (vi) less crimes occur in less punitive societies (vii) separate mechanisms are used for controlling and reacting to street crimes as opposed to white collar crimes.
Radical criminology attempts to fill a void that exists in orthodox criminological philosophies from Beccaria and others scholars who did not adequately exhaust the variations in people, societies and cultures in their efforts to explain crime. Primer in Radical Criminology seeks to explore certain mysteries unraveled by anthropology and sociology that something beyond human control, shapes human conduct or at least dictates available choices because crime rates differ from place to place. Orthodox criminologists assume that individuals with criminal tendencies cluster to a larger extent in some countries than others. This idea could be interpreted as suggesting that the high rate of crime in the U.S.A. is a pointer to the presence of a more dysfunctional population than in Canada for instance. Conversely, radical criminology uses the economy, social structure and culture to explain the differences in motivations for committing crime rather than the differences in people. More so, theories that focus on the social structure such as opportunity theory have failed to address the impact of class, race, gender and culture on the role of desire or opportunity to commit crime. Primer explains how these socio structural factors influence the distribution of opportunity to satisfy socially established desires which results in crime; the book also explains why some harmful acts are more penalized than other similarly or more harmful acts. For example, certain offences including robbery, knowingly marketing tobacco or prostitution causing little harm are more criminalized than white collar crimes leading to huge financial loss and thousands of death.
The authors use primer to build on older theories in criminology and to explain emerging trends such as terrorism, environmental and state crimes in an attempt to promote the role of justice in the world. The book is divided into thirteen chapters excluding the preface, acknowledgments, biographies, references and index. Chapter one defines radical criminology and identifies approaches to understanding criminology; and behavioral varieties. It ties radical criminology to a historical and political context involving social forces that led to keen interest in Marxist invasion of the academia. Chapter two historically traces the intellectual context of radical criminology to Marxism, explaining that capitalism led to class conflicts in societies with structural factors that engendered crime. The social class is perceived in terms of the distribution of economic, political and cultural power, and it is virtually impossible to understand issues of crime in isolation from their social and historical context. Chapter three deals with law and justice in relation to the state. Upholding the concepts of structuralism and instrumentality of control, radicals discredit the traditional law making process of consensus postulated by Emile Durkheim. Chapter four reveals that the radical criminologists perceive crime as a socially construed phenomenon. The authors claim that the definition of crime is arbitrary and subject to the whims and caprices of politicians; thus, underlining some similarities with anomie and labeling theories.
While Chapter five explains how capitalism causes crime by placing emphasis on profit making. Social factors including the means of production aimed at amassing wealth have conversely led to the increase in criminal opportunity for some classes by gender and race. Chapter six focuses on the explanation of crime from a perspective of the political economy, structure and identity. Every crime is traceable to an economic motive: ranging from the choice between starvation and crime observable in the interaction between unemployment, recession, unpaid labor and crime. All of the above factors impact the races and gender differently in terms of available criminal opportunity.
Chapter seven explains the possibility of radicalizing orthodox theories of criminology such as strain, control, life course analysis and the theory of cultural and social capital. ?According to? Robert Merton?s theory of anomie, social structures pressurize some members of society to choose illegality rather than legality. This view is believed to be consistent with the radical thought of dysfunction of goals and means propelled by the distinctions in race, class and gender. The structural inequality of Messner and Rosenfeld and the life course theory all reveal negative impacts on race, class and gender. Orthodox theories may only be effective to explain crime if revised in terms of race, class, gender and culture as in the world today.
In Chapter eight, the authors favor the interdisciplinary approach and urge criminologists to evolve with the changing world in order to develop methods for combating industrial pollution, environmental hazards and global warming problems which significantly affects the poor, women and minorities above others. Green criminology is explicated as a proposal to examine and propound solutions to environmental harms, justice and laws as they affect class, race and gender. Chapter nine examines the dangers of terrorism and state crimes where acts of the western world to consolidate their position results in resistance by other nations, thus promoting violence and victimization. Radical criminology is needed to curb the violent trend by shifting the focus from petty offences to those with more serious consequences to mankind.
Chapter ten emphasizes that a concept of radical policing with a national culture of control and particular concern for how race, crime and gender is affected in the construction of crime must replace the orthodox policing idea which enables the rich to dominate the poor, whites, males and capital to dominate minorities, females and labor respectively. Chapter eleven contends that historically based structural inequalities led to different laws for different groups as is the case with slavery and war on drugs. In Chapter twelve, the radicals unlike traditionalists interpret punishment as an engrained tool to control some segments of the society. Chapter thirteen criticizes the conservative ideology for racial, gender and class inequality and denounces the tougher approach in an age where crime is statistically and comparatively decreasing; finally, advocating for a shift in focus to crime prevention, reorientation of the socio political economy and corporate or institutional accountability.
In conclusion, ?Primer in Radical Criminology ? has successfully attempted to merge the orthodox traditional thinking with the contemporary realities in a way that highlights areas of similarity in the thought process; yet clearly portrays the distinctions in approaches for a better understanding of the issues of crime, causation and criminal behavior in the world today. The book also suggests a framework for an interdisciplinary approach to understanding crime and justice through its stance on green criminology, touching on environmental crimes and justice research, state crimes including terrorism, global warming and the end of the advent of oil. It is a must read for every student of criminology. Lynch and Michalowsky were able to drive home the point that the only way that a nation known for her commitment to democracy and human rights can move forward and reduce crime is to embrace significant changes that will eradicate the age old history of inequality.
Authors? Description:
Michael J. Lynch?
Specialty: Green Criminology, Political Economy, Social Control of Environmental Crime
University of South Florida Faculty
Michael J. Lynch is a professor of criminology and associated faculty member in the School of Global Sustainability at the University of South Florida. He is recognized for research in green criminology, radical criminology, corporate crime, and racial biases in criminal justice processes. Lynch played an influential role in founding green criminology. He has published 19 books on various topics. He was the 2011 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Division on Critical Criminology of the American Society of Criminology.
Raymond Michalowski
He is a Regents? Professor of Criminal Justice at the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northern Arizona University. His research areas include Criminological Theory; International Human Rights; Immigration and Border Policy; Social Justice; Corporate; Environmental and Political Crime. Recent publications include; State Crime in the Global Age (with William Chambliss and Ronald Kramer) and State-Corporate Crime: Wrongdoing at the Intersection of Business and Government (with Ronald Kramer).