Crimtheory3edv6.qxd 12/5/09 21:57 Page 1 An Introduction to Theory Criminological to An Introduction Criminological Theory Third edition ROGER HOPKINS BURKE This third edition of An Introduction to Criminological Theory comprises a substantially revised and expanded, comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to criminological theory worldwide. Each chapter has been revised to take account of recent theoretical developments and the enduring validity of established theories has been explored through application to crucial contemporary criminological issues. This edition introduces new themes in a fifth part that An Introduction to addresses crime and criminality in the contemporary age of moral uncertainty. The text is divided into five parts. The first three parts address an identified model of criminal behaviour – the rational actor, the predestined actor and victimised actor models – that have each professed to explain crime and criminal behaviour. The fourth part reviews more recent Criminological attempts to integrate theoretical elements from both within and across models of criminal behaviour. The fifth part addresses a range of contemporary issues including constitutive criminology, anarchist criminology, cultural criminology and the schizophrenia of crime, new modes of governance, the risk society, globalisation theories, terrorism and state violence, and communitarianism. Theory This is an interdisciplinary text that recognises the value of legal, biological, psychological and sociological explanations of crime and criminal behaviour, and the increasingly more sophis- edition ticated attempts to integrate these theories. Theories are placed in the socio-political context Third Third edition in which they arose and the whole text is located in the context of contemporary debates about modernity and postmodernity, now substantially revised at a time when the world is undergoing the seismic shock of perhaps the greatest economic crisis ever encountered and the criminogenic conditions likely to be produced as a consequence. This book covers the entire syllabus for the vast majority of contemporary university crimino- ROGER HOPKINS BURKE logical theory courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level while continuing to gently expand the parameters of debate. It is nevertheless written in an accessible and non-esoteric fashion and provides an excellent introduction to how crime and criminal behaviour has been variously explained for all students of criminology. The author Roger Hopkins Burke is Criminology Subject Leader, Division of Criminology, Public Health and Policy Studies, Nottingham Trent University. His current research interests are the development of criminological theory and young people and crime. Recent publications include Young People, Crime and Justice (Willan Publishing, 2008). Academic and Professional Publisher of the Year 2008 International Achievement of the Year 2009 www.willanpublishing.co.uk ROGER HOPKINS BURKE An Introduction to Criminological Theory For Kristan, Thomas and Oliver An Introduction to Criminological Theory Third Edition Roger Hopkins Burke Published by Willan Publishing Culmcott House Mill Street, Uffculme Cullompton, Devon EX15 3AT, UK Tel: +44(0)1884 840337 Fax: +44(0)1884 840251 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.willanpublishing.co.uk Published simultaneously in the USA and Canada by Willan Publishing c/o ISBS, 920 NE 58th Ave, Suite 300, Portland, Oregon 97213-3786, USA Tel: +001(0)503 287 3093 Fax: +001(0)503 280 8832 e-mail: [email protected] Website: www.isbs.com © Roger Hopkins Burke 2009 The rights of Roger Hopkins Burke to be identified as author of this book have been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988. All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the Publishers or a licence permitting copying in the UK issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. First published 2001 Second Edition 2005 Third Edition 2009 ISBN 978-1-84392-407-4 paperback ISBN 978-1-84392-569-9 hardback British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Project managed by Deer Park Productions, Tavistock, Devon Typeset by GCS, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, LU7 1EU Printed and bound by T.J. International, Padstow, Cornwall Contents Acknowledgements xi 1 Introduction: crime and modernity 1 Pre-modern crime and criminal justice 1 The rise of modern society 3 Defining and the extent of crime 5 The structure of the book 7 Suggested further reading 20 Part One: The rational actor model of crime and criminal behaviour 21 2 Classical criminology 27 The Classical theorists 27 The limitations of Classicism 31 The neo-Classical compromise 31 The enduring influence of Classicism 33 Suggested further reading 35 3 Populist conservative criminology 36 The rise of the political new right 36 James Q. Wilson and ‘right realism’ 37 Right realism and social control 41 A critique of right realism 42 Suggested further reading 44 4 Contemporary rational actor theories 46 Contemporary deterrence theories 46 Rational choice theory 49 Routine activities theory 53 The rational actor reconsidered 56 Suggested further reading 59 v An Introduction to Criminological Theory Part Two: The predestined actor model of crime and criminal behaviour 61 5 Biological positivism 65 Early biological theories 65 Inherited criminal characteristics 68 Genetic structure 72 Criminal body types 73 Psychoses and brain injuries 75 Autistic spectrum disorders 77 Biochemical theories 80 Altered biological state theories 82 Treating the offender 87 Conclusions 88 Suggested further reading 90 6 Psychological positivism 92 Psychodynamic theories 92 Behavioural learning theories 97 Cognitive learning theories 103 Conclusions 108 Suggested further reading 108 7 Sociological positivism 110 Emile Durkheim and social disorganisation theory 110 The Chicago school 116 Robert Merton and anomie theory 119 Deviant subculture theories 126 Conclusions 141 Suggested further reading 141 8 Women and positivism 143 Biological positivism and women 143 Psychological positivism and women 146 Sociological positivism and women 152 Conclusions 157 Suggested further reading 157 Part Three: The victimised actor model of crime and criminal behaviour 159 9 Labelling theories 167 The social construction of crime 167 The recipients of deviant labels 170 The consequences of labelling for the recipients 171 vi Contents Moral panics and deviance amplification 173 Criticisms of labelling theories 175 Labelling theories revisited 176 Suggested further reading 179 10 Conflict and radical theories 180 Conflict theories 180 Criticisms of conflict theories 183 Radical theories 184 Criticisms of radical theories 188 Suggested further reading 190 11 The gendered criminal 191 Perspectives in feminist theory 192 The feminist critique of early explanations of female criminality 195 The impact of feminist critiques 197 Feminism and prostitution 200 Is there a feminist criminology? 202 Crime and masculinities 203 Suggested further reading 205 12 Critical criminology 206 The origins of critical criminology 206 Crimes of the powerful 208 Crimes of the less powerful 210 Critical criminology or ‘left idealism’ 211 Critical criminology and the challenge of zemiology 212 Critical criminology revisited 215 Suggested further reading 216 Part Four: Integrated theories of crime and criminal behaviour 219 13 Socio-biological theories 223 Biosocial theory 223 Biosocial theory and the ‘new right’ 225 Sociobiological theories of rape 226 Recent sociobiological explanations of childhood delinquency 228 Conclusions 229 Suggested further reading 230 14 Environmental theories 231 Early environmental theories 231 British environmental theories 232 North American environmental theories 233 Environmental design 238 vii An Introduction to Criminological Theory Environmental management 242 Suggested further reading 243 15 Social control theories 245 The origins of social control theories 245 Early social control theories 247 Later social control theories 249 Integrated theoretical perspectives 251 A general theory of crime 254 Developments in social control theories 256 Conclusions 260 Suggested further reading 261 16 Left realism 262 The origins of left realism 262 A balance of intervention 266 Left realism and ‘New’ Labour 269 Social exclusion and the ‘underclass’: a case study 270 ‘New’ Labour criminal justice policy revisited 272 Left realist theory revisited 275 Suggested further reading 277 Part Five: Crime and criminal behaviour in the age of moral uncertainty 279 17 Crime and the postmodern condition 287 Constitutive criminology and postmodernity 289 Anarchist criminology 293 Suggested further reading 298 18 Cultural criminology and the schizophrenia of crime 299 The focus of cultural criminology 299 The seductions of crime 302 The carnival of crime 304 The schizophrenia of crime 304 Crime as normal and non pathological 305 One planet under a groove 307 Suggested further reading 311 19 Crime, globalisation and the risk society 312 New modes of governance 312 Crime and the risk society 313 Globalisation and crime 317 Terrorism and state violence 321 Terrorism and postmodernism revisited 327 Suggested further reading 328 viii Contents 20