Book Reviews

Volume 65 | Issue 4 Article 16

1975 Book Reviews

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Recommended Citation Book Reviews, 65 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 554 (1974)

This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. THE JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW & CRIMINOLOGY Vol. 65, No. 4 Copyright (D 1975 by Northwestern University School of Law Printed in U.S.A.

BOOK REVIEWS

REVIEW ARTICLES

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE NEW CRIMINOLOGY*

DENIS SZABO **

Because of the increasing number of scien- on the difficult task of summarizing and criti- tific publications, many good books have to cizing the corpus of criminological tradition. wait as long as three years before being re- The first two chapters constitute the en- viewed in the journals. It is significant that trance into the subject matter with "Classical this book, on the contrary, has received several Criminology and the Positivist Revolution." critical reviews in the few months following its Beginning with Beccaria, the authors analyse publication." Why this ultra-critical tone? This the positivist reaction which the classical is easily understood after reading Alvin Gould- school of penal law gave rise to at the end of ner's preface, in which he insists that the cards the 19th century. Continuing on to Lombroso be laid on the table. The authors' intention is and Ferri, they proceed to a strong criticism to break the conspiracy of silence maintained of contemporary authors whom they situate in by generations of criminologists described as the positivist tradition: Eysenck and Trasler, traditional, "by launching a deliberate dis- among the psychologists; Tappan, Wilkins, course concerning the general social theory Sellin and Wolfgang among the sociologists. usually only tacit in specialized work on crime The connection between the scientific theory and and deviance" (p. ix) and "by liberating tech- the social attitudes of the researchers is clearly nical 'topics' into a newly enlivening, larger, shown. more reflexive critique" (p. x). The introduc- Chapter III, devoted -to Durkheim, is pre- tion-it would be more accurate to say the sented as a break with "analytical individual- reintroduction-of criminological studies into ism." In fact, the French sociologist was the general sociological discussion had to occur only one, among the outstanding founders of sooner or later. This isn't always a purely the- sociology, to concern himself with an explana- oretical operation. It directly affects criminol- tion of crime as a social phenomenon which is ogical practice by emphasizing the necessity of part of the total social phenomenon. This first accepting "the reality of deviance, that has a general theory of the sociology of crime and capacity to explore its Lebenswelt without be- deviance, which was at the basis of the struc- coming the technician of the 'Welfare' State tural-functionalist school which dominated and its zoo-keepers of deviance" (p. xiv). sociology almost until our time is judged in- After the critical and liberating mission of sufficient by the authors because, while repre- the book was announced, the authors then take senting a healthy break with the analytical in- dividualism of the positivists, this was brought * A review article of THE NEw CRIMINOLOGY: about "at the expense of erecting an FOR A SociAL THEORY OF DEVIANCE. By Ian Tay- lor, Paul Walton and Jock Young. New York: incomplete picture of society, and, in particu- Harper & Row, 1973. Pp. xiv, 325. $3.95. Because lar, at the expense of ambiguity over the ques- of the heated debate this controversial work has provoked, two review articles appear in order to tions of rationality, purposiveness and sociali- provide differing perspectives. zation in divided societies" (p. 90). It is true ** Director, International Centre for Compara- that Durkheim was fundamentally a rationalist tive Criminology, University of Montreal. 1 The following book reviews were severely and even something of an organicist with his critical: Beyleveld, Hirst, and Phillipson, 13 BRIT. insistance on the supremacy of the collective J. CRim. 394 (1973); Currie, 9 ISSUES IN CRIMI- conscience over the individual conscience. NOLOGY 133 (1974); Turk, 3 CONTEMPORARY So- CIOLOGY 217 (1974). The theoretical breakthrough of Durkheim BOOK REVIEWS

finally encouraged the development of a series that this sociology of daily life is "to be lo- of sociological studies on criminality, mainly cated within higher order life-plans. It is pre- in the United States. Merton made the most cisely these normative life-plans, world views, important contribution in reformulating the or ideologies which constitute the cement theory of anomie developed by Durkheim in which provides the beliefs necessary for the connection with the etiology of suicide. The maintenance of social system .. . .Life is not interactionist trend was represented by Suther- a game and only certain beliefs will sustain land and his disciples as the successors of Durk- specific social systems" (pp. 207-208). Finally, heim and based itself on the social psychology "the differential availibility of accounts to of Mead. This trend produced a growing inter- members is something which ethnometho- est dating from the middle of the sixties in the dology cannot and does not study, yet it is pre- wake of Albert Cohen; Becker, Kitsuse, cisely this problem which is at the basis of the Lemert are examined and criticized. distribution of motives which inform deviant In the opinion of our authors, all this re- behavior. . . .[I]n bracketing away the ques- search lacks a coherent theory of "Deviance." tion of social reality, it does not allow of any It does not take into consideration the power description of the social totality we assert to be structure and interests. They note that a "rele- productive of deviance"(p. 208). If the ethno- vant theory of deviancy must treat the causal methodologists renewed the study of norms variables-motivation and reaction-as deter- and values, the majority have not accepted a minate and as part of a total structure of social normative sociology. relationships. "[W]e see that the institution of Chapter VIII is devoted to Marx and En- private property, in a stratified and inequitable gels and to their disciple Bonger. The task of society, divides men from men as owners and the authors is difficult because as they note, non-owners. It is in the light of this division "... one of the most telling features of Marx's that the activities of thieves, police, magistrates statements on crime is their a-typicality when and property-owners become explicable" (p. compared to -the vast body of orthodox marx- 170). A whole series of "deviant" conduct, that ism" (p. 219). It is Marx's general theory of thieves, industrial spies, student rebels, can- which allows us to deduce pertinent conclu- not be satisfactorily explained in the interac- sions for criminology, rather than his specific tionist perspective. It lacks, "a detailed social remarks about crime. The following is their in- history of the constraints, aspirations and terpretation of this general theory: "a full meanings which inform and activate the ac- blown marxist theory of deviance . . . would tors" (p. 170). In the same way that the be concerned to develop an explanation of the theory of differential opportunities hardly ex- ways in which particular historical periods, plains the phenomenon of black militantism, in- characterized by particular sets of social rela- teractionism falls short of an explanation of tionships and means of production, give rise to behavior caused by global structural data. attempts by the economically powerful to order Our authors now propose to consider "a struc- society in a particular way.... Who makes the tural sociology on the one hand (a sociology rules and why?" (p. 220). Only such a theory competent to deal with power and interest) supports their conclusion "that much deviance and a sociology of motivation on the other (a is in itself a political act, and that, in this sociology that can account for the way in sense, deviance is a property of the act rather which individuals give meaning to their acts)" than a spurious label applied to the amoral or (p. 171). the careless by agencies of political and social In the chapter given over to American natu- control" (p. 221). ralism and phenomenology, the contribution of At the end of this chapter the authors offer ethnomethodology is examined in the work of a Marxist approach to the strategy of crimi- Matza. Epistemological concerns naturally nological research: "It would start with crime dominate this chapter: what is the exact nature as a human action, as a reaction to positions of the phenomenon called "deviance?" The held in an antagonistic social structure, but writing of Garfinkel, Cicourel, Sacks, etc. are also as action taken to resolve those antago- critically evaluated and our authors conclude nisms. It would.., involve a model ... of the BOOK REVIEWS Vol. 65 dialectics of human action, however, or for tions, in different historical circumstances" whatever reason they tend to be defined as (p. 268). 'criminal' in particular historical periods by the In addition, this theory must take into ac- powerful. . . . It would proceed to understand count "the forms assumed by social control and the relationship of criminal action, and an un- deviant action in 'developed' societies charac- derstanding of its dynamics, to human libera- terized . . . by the domination of a capitalist tion" (p. 236). Here, then, is the intellectual mode of production, by a division of labour in- unity of the theory of action, the fundamental volving the growth of armies of experts, social aspiration of all socialist thought. Crime re- workers, psychiatrists and others who had been sults from a conflict between antagonistic assigned a crucial role in the task of social forces, and only by its replacement in the fun- definition and social control, and currently by damental conflicts which dominate the socio- the necessity to segregate out-in mental hos- economic structure of capitalist societies can a pitals, prisons and in juvenile institutions-an "correct" analysis of crime take place. Crime increasing variety of its members as being in is the expression of the aspirations of the op- need of control" (p. 269). In a capitalist so- pressed to contest or to shake off the yoke of ciety, whether balanced by the socialist version their oppressors. of the Welfare State or not, all social control The last chapter deals with the "new conflict is part of the machinery of repression whose theorists :" Vold, Dahrendorf, Turk, Quinney, purpose is to maintain public order in the are placed in a post or neo-marxist perspective. service of the interests of the governing class. The authors examine the contribution of this Resulting from this, all "science" which is "school" with sympathy. Nevertheless, they are used toward this end has, objectively, an anti- still inadequate, according to the demands of social and repressive function. the new criminology. What is wanting is the Here, then, in some detail, is the approach most fundamental of the prerequisities of a suggested by the authors to satisfy the episte- general theory: the judicious evaluation of mological, methodological and the ontological human conduct. For all of these authors, the demands of the new criminology: criminal fact, the criminal himself, remains 1) "The theory must be able to place an act pathological, while our authors emphasize that in terms of its wider structuralorigins" (p 270). "such a conception undermines or under- "The wider origins of the deviant act stresses an alternative view of men as purposive could only be understood ... in terms of the creators and innovators of action" (p. 267). rapidly changing economic and political contin- "The conflict approach is in danger of gencies of advanced industrial societies . . . the withdrawing integrity and purpose--or idio- formal requirement is . . . a political economy syncracy-from men: and thus, is close to of crime" (p. 270). erecting a view of crime as a non-purposive 2) "Immediate origins of the deviant act. (or pathological) reaction to external circum- The formal requirement . . . is for a social psy- stances" (p. 267). According to our critics, chology of crime: (which) . . . recognizes that everything remains too mechanistic, too deter- men may consciously choose the deviant role, ministic: how does one keep acts and inten- as the one solution to the problem posed by ex- tions authentic when interests so largely domi- istence in a contradictory society" (p. 271). nate motivation? 3) "The actual act: The formal requirement What is, then, the theory of the authors? ...is for an explanation of the ways in which We have had a foretaste in the quotation of the actual acts of men are explicable in terms significant passages of their critique of the of rationality of choice or the constraints on theories of others. Let us examine their own. choice at the point of precipitation into action" For them, "an adequate social theory would (p. 272). need to be free of the biological and psycholog- 4) "The immediate origins of social reac- ical assumptions that have been involved in the tion: The requirement at this level is for an various attempts to explain the actions of the explanation of the immediate interaction of the men who do get defined and sanctioned by the social audience in terms of range of choices state as deviant, and react against these defini- available to that audience. The requirement ... BOOK REVIEWS

is . . . for a social psychology of social reac- rangements themselves must also be subject to tion: an account of the contingencies and the fundamental social change" (p. 282). conditions which are crucial to the decisions to The last paragraph of the book constitutes act against the deviant" (pp. 272-273). the final proclamation of faith: "For us . . . 5) "Wider original of deviant reaction": deviance is normal-in the sense that men are This is concerned with an "effective model of now consciously involved (in the prisons that the political and economic imperatives that un- are contemporary society and in the real pris- derpin on the one hand the 'lay ideologies' and ons) in asserting their human diversity ... on the other the 'crusades' and initiatives that The task is to create a society in which the emerge periodically either to control the facts of human diversity, whether personal, or- amount and the level of deviance or else to re- ganic or social, are not subject to the power to move certain behaviors from the category of criminalize" (p. 282). illegal behaviors. We are lacking a political The preceeding summary is by necessity economy of social reaction" (p. 274). schematic, and probably gives only a superfi- 6) "The outcome of the social reaction on cial idea of the richness of the theoretical in- deviant's further action": The requirement sights, of the liveliness of the polemical argu- here is to see "the reaction ... to rejection or ments, of the obvious generosity of the moral stigmatization... as being bound up with the inspiration which motivates the authors. I must conscientious choices that precipitated the ini- say without equivocation that I derived great tial infraction" (p. 275). "The consciousness pleasure-mixed with a certain irritation and ... would be seen as explicable... in terms of much uneasiness-in reading this book (twice, the actor consciousness of the world in gen- in order to do justice to this review). Taylor, eral" (p. 276). Walton and Young place themselves in the 7) "The nature of the deviant process as a iconoclastic tradition of Szasz, Michael and whole": All the facts must be present in the Adler, and Andreski. Andreski's recent work, explanation of the facts of deviance, in a com- Social Sciences as Sorcery, produced very sim- plete and dialectical interaction. "The substan- ilar feelings to those I felt when reading the tive history of twentieth-century criminology best parts of the present book, even though the is, by and large, the history of the empirical inspiration of the author stems from the side emasculation of theories which attempted to opposed to that of the protagonists of the new deal with the whole society, and a history criminology. From the start, Taylor, Walton therefore of the depoliticization of criminologi- and Young adopt an ultra-critical position in cal issues" (p. 278). considering not only traditional scientific crim- Then new criminology should, therefore, be inology, but equally and perhaps more strongly "9a political economy of criminal action and of in considering other new Marxist trends in the reactions it excites, and . . . a politically criminology. informed social psychology of these ongoing I have four main criticisms which I address social dynamics" (p. 279). "The new criminol- to the author: the schematic nature of the argu- ogy must . . . be a normative theory: it must ment, the assimilation of theory to ideology, hold to the possibilities of a resolution to the the less than subtle holism and the utopian fundamental questions, and a social resolution" concept of the essential goodness and perfecti- (p. 280). bility of man. It follows that I recognize in ad- ". .. A criminology which is not norma- vance my own guilt in the excessive schemati- tively committed to the abolition of inequalities zation of my critique. in property and life chances is inevitably There is nothing strange in the fact that the bound to fall into correctionalism. And all critics whom we have quoted have paid the correctionalism is... bound up with the iden- authors in their own coin: their reaction has tification of deviance with pathology" (p. 281). been largely negative. But this reaction is not For the authors, "crime is ever and always... based solely on the hyper-critical attitude of behaviour seen to be problematic within the our authors. In undertaking a total re-evalua- framework of those social arrangements: for tion of the contribution of criminology to the crime to be abolished, then, those social ar- contemporary theoretical discourse now taking BOOK REVIEWS Vol. 65

place in the social sciences, the authors have question only by the proclamation of a free ex- taken on a perilous task. It is true that crimi- amination based on the authority of scientific nological writing has been lacking in epistemo- research. Conjuring away the depth of the logical criticism, and they do make a distin- problems which emerge from a historical anal- guished contribution in undertaking the ysis, the simplism of the authors contributes lit- "sociology of criminology." But even though tle to a serious intellectual debate. not everyone could construct so ambitious an The deficiency which I felt most sharply was epistomological study and critique, it still re- the absence of all reference to criminological mains extremely schematic and arbitrary in the practice and even to a concrete social policy. eyes of the specialist. Recent reviews of this The authors' schematic pamphleteering always book are totally justified in pointing out the remains at such a level of abstraction and gen- inconsistencies and the simplifications of the erality that none of the proposals appear to be authors in their treatment of such complex testable or capable of being put into practice. subjects and, in particular, their summary crit- As to the final plan proposed, which we have icism of scientific neutrality. Like all polemi- quoted, who could be against this? Still, when cists, they dichotomize arbitrarily, thus lament- one gets down to details, one finds much to ably impoverishing the subjects discussed and disagree with. Vague references to the connec- giving a false impression of rigor to what is tions between reformism, liberalism and capi- really only a manifestation of a regrettable in- talism cannot be substituted for a rigorous tellectual and moral Manichaenism. The same analysis describing the interaction between the criticism can be levelled against each chapter: different scientific ideologies and the socio-pol- simplification and distortion of the arguments itical, socio-economic and socio-administrative of the authors under discussion; large gaps in reality. This lack of examination of criminal the documentation, which is evidenced in the policy as part of a social policy detracts arbitrary selection of the work criticized; and greatly from the interest and the scope of the a permanent subordination of the finality of arguments. An analysis of the relationship be- scientific investigation to the finality of norma- tween the objectives of the social policy of the tive and political action. New Deal, the Beveridge Plan, the social dem- The authors' understanding of history leaves ocratic governments of the Scandinavian coun- us perplexed. The ideas of Beccaria, connect- tries, for example, remains to be done. With- ing thread of judicial thought till our day, are out such a study, the affirmations of the new treated a-historically. The reference to Angela criminologists remain gratuitous and are not Davis is immediate, the political contemporary intellectually acceptable. context overwhelming. Saleilles analyzes with The confrontation between ideology (be- subtlety the confrontation between the classical cause we are really concerned here more with school of penal law and the growing positiv- this than with theory) and practice shows ism. The benefit of an understanding of the most vividly the shortcomings in neo-Marxism, historical perspective in which Rousseau, Mon- as exemplified by the socio-political, judicial tesquieu and Beccaria emerged seems scarcely and criminological reality in the countries with apparent to our authors. Describing Tarde as a Marxist-Leninist ideologies. Many works of a positivist (p. 17) is akin to describing Sir Karl high degree of scientific, intellectual and moral Popper or Lord Bertrand Russell as idealists. credibility exist. They allow us to see how the One comes upon many of these contradictions, majority of the theses advanced by the authors due to a too rapid, too polemical, too simplistic underwent an interesting test in reality since treatment of the facts which deserve, and 1917. But where in the index, between the which have received, more just and nuanced names of Lemert and Levin, is the name of evaluations. Lenin, whose contribution to the theory and Let us recall that faith in reason and in sci- particularly the practice of Marxist justice is ence works against the arbitrariness of the certainly noteworthy? It is not through the brute force of absolutist regimes. Justified by poignant writing of Jackson, Cleaver and oth- an ultramontane theology, obviously teleologi- ers, emerging from the battles of American cal, the established system can be called into minorities and testifying in these writings to BOOK REVIEWS terrible injustices, that one can understand the consists of testing the ideas and the practices -world described by Solzhenitsyn. in a standardized and systematic manner, no This reduction of the historical perspective matter what the method or the epistemology to the smaller perceptions of the generation chosen may be. who grew up surrounded by the atmosphere of The division of work between politicians and post-industrial society, of the Vietnam war and scientists, moralists and metaphysicians and be- of the decolonization of the Third World, lim- tveen bureaucrats and intellectuals was ob- its this book most severely. Following a well- tained at the cost of great sacrifices, requiring known psycho-social mechanism, it will be read the imposition of a long catalogue of safe- and applauded by those whose experience and guards. But the direct and immediate subordi- socio-political sensitivity is similar to that of nation of all means to ideological imperatives the authors. Like many other works (the best has produced 'nothing but socio-political re- example being that of Reich's The Greening gimes where intolerance reigns supreme and of America) it is the expression of a light- where it is not easy for free and responsible men ning-flash of the Zeitgeist without attaining to live. Modern history presents eloquent exam- and without contributing to the fundamental ples which illustrate these facts. These remind- dialogue which man has been pursuing since ers are in everyone's memory and should cer- the dawn of time. tainly be in that of the generation which has. For those who question the fundamental di- lived through Watergate. alectic between liberty and constraint, order Finally, those who are concerned with de- and change, right and wrong, vice and virtue, viancy whether by vocation or by necessity run this book is of little help. The authors have been the risk of seeing their frusti'ation exacerbated quoted extensively in order to do justice to their by this book. The moral conscience of man position. The quotation of several lines from does not reduce to a simple reflection of the Burke may be pertinent to their philosophy of political fights of the day. It would be much liberty: "Men are qualified for civil liberty in too simple to understand and to act on deviant exact proportion of their disposition to put conduct in terms of ideological engagement moral chain upon their own appetites ... ; so- and direct political action. The forces of evil ciety cannot exist unless a controlling power are truly to be seen at work in history and in upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, the spirit and in the heart of man. To accept and less of there is within, the more there is this fundamental fact of the human condition, without. It is ordained in the eternal constitu- to acknowledge the possibility of defeat as well tion of things that men of intemperate mind that of victory implicit in the very principle of cannot be free .... " our liberty of action, is to demonstrate not The vocabulary has no doubt aged; one has only humanity but also humility. certainly abused the "chains" which willingly The concrete manner in which man and so- or unwillingly man has imposed or which have ciety react to the triumph of evil obviously been imposed on the exercise of his liberty. It should be subject to constant and watchful still holds true, however, that Burke's principle criticism. Here, I think, lies the honour as well merits the greatest attention on the part of as the vocation of intellectuals: to proclaim the those who are concerned with morality as the "science" of man. necessity of such criticism and to practice it Those who have chosen "science" in order without failure. But to claim the suppression of to study and understand the deviant or crimi- constant conflict between good and evil is to nal man will be little helped by the proposi- profess an inhuman, arrogant philosophy which tions of the new criminology. For them, noth- leads to regimes which are tragic to the free- ing can replace the rigorous process which dom of man. THE JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW & CRIMINOLOGY Vol. 65, No. 4 Copyright 0 1975 by Northwestern University School of Law Printed in U.S.A.

BOOK REVIEWS

THE "OLD" AND THE "NEW" CRIMINOLOGY*

CHARLES E. REASONS *

"Frankly, I have been quite surprised by the cal sociology and criminology. The work of the negative emotional reaction that this book has European Group for the Study of Deviance received from people that I thought would be and Social Control, and the Union of Radical more tolerant in point of view. The discipline Criminologists, among others, portends in- of criminology is not so rich in scholarship creasing challenges to traditional studies of de- 4 that it cannot benefit from alternative points of viance and crime. view and perspectives which appear promis- The New Criminology is a product of three ing." I generally agree with this comment leaders of the European Group for the Study made by the book review editor in his trans- of Deviance and Social Control and has al- mittal of confirmation regarding this review. ready elicited a great deal of commentary. The substantive area of criminology has in- Some have given it fairly supportive reviews, creasingly become politicized with new para- while others have declared it is a "perversion digms arising to challenge traditional of scholarship" and ideological diatribe. 5 While perspectives.' This has intensified ideological I am not responding, like some reviewers, to conflict and increasingly produced heated de- comments upon my own work, I nonetheless bates and polemical attacks.2 The New Crimi- am in general ideological and substantive wology is a significant contribution to the agreement with the authors. Probably the es- emerging polemic in criminological circles. sential significance of this book is noted in the This is not a fault of the work, for polemics or forward by Alvin Gouldner: controversy and dispute are, or should be, a necessary aspect of science and intellectual af- The reorienting power of this work, and it is a work of power whose achievement does fairs. The dialectic of positions and counter- not depend upon merely marginal distinctions, positions stance and opposition is the essence derives from its ability to demonstrate that all of a revolutionary perspective of science and 3 studies of crime and deviance, however deeply man. entrenched in their own technical traditions, While ideology has been important in socio- are inevitably also grounded in larger, more logical work in general and criminology specifi- general social theories which are always pres- cally, only recently has there emerged a criti- ent (and consequential) even as unspoken si- lences. What this important study does, then, * This review article is also a critique of I. is this: it redirects the total structure of tech- TAYLOR, P. WALTON and J. YOUNG, THE NEw nical discourse concerning "crime" and "devi- CRIMINOLOGY: FOR A THEORY OF DEVIANCE (1973). ance," it does this precisely by breaking this ** Associate Professor of Sociology, University silence, by speaking what is normally unspo- of Calgary. ken by technicians, by launching a "deliberate 1 W. CHAMBLISs, FUNCTIONAL AND CONFLICT discourse" concerning the general, social THEORIES OF CRIME (1974); Reasons, Paradigm Conflict in Criminology, in CRIME AND DELIN- theory usually only tacit in specialized work QUENCY: DIMENSIONS OF DEVIANCE (Riedel and in crime and deviance; by exhibiting explicitly Thornberry, eds., 1975) ; Reasons, The Politicizing the linkages between technical detail and the of Crime, the Criminal and the Criminologist, 64 most basic philosophical positions (p. ix). J. CRIM. L. & CRIM. 471 (1973). 2 C. Reasons, THE CRIMINOLOGIST: CRIME AND 4 The Union of Radical Criminologists now has THE CRIMINAL (1974); Miller, Ideology and a journal CRIMIE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE published at Criminal Justice Policy: Some Current Issues, 64 Berkeley.5 J. CRIM. L. & CRIM. 141 (1973). See TU, 3 CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY 217 3 T. KUHN, THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC (1974); Quinney, Rock, and Platt, Feature Re- REVOLUTIONS (1970). view Symposium, 14 SOCIOLOGICAL Q. 589 (1973). BOOK REVIEWS

The New Criminology is an invaluable source- The implications of this statement are not pur- book for students of deviance and social theor- sued in their own writing. While the authors ists. It provides many examples of the linkage touch upon multiple realities and ideology, they between seemingly disparate technical studies fail to address such works as Mannheim's Ide- and their philosophical and social underpin- ology and Utopia, Kuhn's Structure of Scien- nings. However, as shall become evident in the tific Revolutions, among others, and their sig- following discussion of specific chapters, it nificance for the theories and writers they would have been more appropriately entitled A discuss and the work of "The New Criminolo- New Look At The Old Criminology. gists." In their first chapter the authors provide a In an excellent discussion of the appeal of good discussion of the philosophical basis of positivism (Chapter 2) they note the ideologi- the classical school of criminology. They note cal strengths of positivist thought. In a human- that the free-will emphasis of the classical istic vein, the authors assert that man is both school and the determinism of the positivist the -product and the producer of society con- school both withdraw "authenticity" and "ra- trary to positivistic assumptions. tionality" from the criminal act itself (p. 7). In an extensive discussion of Durkheim's However, during the rest of the work they fail work, the authors make the case for his work to explicate "the authentic" approach and the as a break with positivism and "underpinned rationality of crime as David Gordon, among not only by a radical critique of individuali- others, has done." While I agree with the au- zation but also by a complex (nonpositivistic) thors that criminality is a continuous trait, image of man in an ordered society" (p. 71). positivistic analysis does set up cut-off points For example, in discussing the "normal and and typologies based upon more or less crimi- pathological," they suggest that "a flourishing nality. Both Poveda and Chapman have noted crime rate, then, is an indication of the anach- the investment criminologists have in such ronistic nature of systems and ideas of social distinctions. 7 Chapman observes that: control" (p. 80). Furthermore, a quite interesting derivation of three types of deviants in The social sciences accept the stereotype of Durkheim's writing are presented: (1) the bio- the criminal as a given, for to challenge it logical, (2) functional rebel, and (3) skewed. would involve heavy penalties. The penalties The biological is evident in the "normal" divi- are to be isolated from the main stream of sion of labor while the functional rebel and professional activity, to be denied resources skewed deviant are manifest in "pathological" for research, and to be denied official patron- divisions of labor. The functional rebel, like status. age with its rewards in material and Merton's non-conforming deviant,8 challenges the legitimacy of the existing order, while the Regarding objectivity the authors state that: skewed deviant is inappropriately socialized in a Finally, Absolute objectivity becomes an impossible "sick society," i.e., anomie and egoism. goal: facts do not speak for themselves. the authors state that "the most serious con- 'Facts' are a product of the work of those quence of the emasculation of Durkheim's social with the power to define what is to be taken theory in the work of many criminologists, has to be factual and of the willingness of those been the depoliticization of criminology" without such power to accept the given defini- (p. 87). This provocative interpretation should tions. The social scientist, it follows, makes stimulate further research on the classical is- choices from various paradigmatic universes; sues and writers in social theory and their or he chooses to exist in one 'factual' world contemporary "relevance" to social thought rise to attempts by means of production, give and action. of 6 Gordon, Capitalism, Class and Crime i;Ainer- A chapter entitled "The Early Sociologies provides a critique of Mertonian an- ica, 19 CRIME & DELINQUENCY 163 (1973). Crime" 7 D. CHAPMAN, SOCIOLOGY AND THE STEREOTYPE omie theory and its subsequent application. It OF THE CRIMINAL (1968) ; Poveda, The Image of is suggested that attention to the conformist the Criminal: A Critique of Crime and Delin- quency Theories, 5 IssuEs IN CRIMINOLOGY 61 8 R. MERTon' and R. NisBET, CONTEMPORARY (1970). SOCIAL PROBLE S (1971). BOOK REVIEWS Vol. 65

adaption would involve the problem of "ex- here and elsewhere to problems of interpreta- plaining the legitimacy of authority in an im- tion. perfect society" and "it might also confront Societal reactionists are also criticized for Merton with the fact that conforming people their lack of humanistic content, allowing for are few and far between in those positions in the deviant to be an actor and creator, not the social structure with minimal structural merely acted upon and created. "For us, in one strain" (p. 98). However, the authors fail to sense at least, deviants are always rational clarify this point with examples of corporate creatures; like any other persons, they engage crime, political crime and corruption, among in choice and evaluation" (p. 156). This pas- others. sage along with some others at this point, seem In spite of the many studies of anomie quite demeaning and somewhat condescending. theory, there is still an aura of mysticism and It is like, as Jock Yong put it in an earlier ar- reified obstruseness to it.9 Anomie is a form of ticle, we as the "Zookeepers of Deviance" are mystification which elevates power, politics and trying to create a sense of respect and dignity policies and men's action into some reified for these unfortunates while keeping them force which has descended upon society, i.e., "caged" with such terms as deviant and crimi- anomie. The Chicago ecological work is in- nal. Why accept the term deviant from the dicted for its antiseptic, apolitical value-free standpoint of the laws and/or the dominant approach. Cultural lag, zones of transition, so- moral/political order? Why not look at the de- cial disorganization, were the "causes" of prob- viance and crime of the rich and powerful and lems and not the action or inaction of men dominant social, economic and political institu- competing and in conflict in the day-to-day tions? While they note that the missing ele- game called society, marked by differentials in ment in much of the study of deviance has power, resources, etc. As the authors' note: been power, they fail to address this in their seven step model, particularly the nature of Racism, delinquency, deviation and social prob- rule-making and the sociology of law. lems are not simply the result of the activities and predispositions of what Gouldner called the The chapter dealing with naturalism and 'mopping-up agencies.' they are intimately con- phenomenology is largely a review and critique nected with the problems faced by the 'master of David Matza's work. They note that institutions.' Matza's methodological prescription is to "tell it like it is." It might also be noted that the In a chapter analyzing the societal reaction- methodological prescription for this book is ist school, the authors point out that the major "be authentic." The authors suggest that the significance of this writing is to demystify cru- naturalistic perspective can lead us into the er- der structural approaches which fail to appre- roneous impression that the only true account ciate the social control agency as an of deviance can be given by deviants. In a pos- independent variable. However, the societal re- itivistic bent they suggest that "[f]alse beliefs actionists are criticized for their relativism. may motivate men but their causal and predic- "In the case of premeditated killing for per- tive efficacy must be challenged by the social sonal gain, however, there is, of course, almost theorists" (p. 174). Furthermore, universal agreement on the deviant label" (p. 145). Is there really? What of premeditated A considerable amount of deviant action is killings in war, executions, etc.? The authors falsely-conscious in the sense that it is not argue that it is clear to most people which ac- fully conscious of its own constitution. The tions are deviant and which are not deviant. false view of society encouraged and propa- However, the contextual, historical variations gated by the powerful is one of the constitu- in the meaning of deviance suggest this is not tive features in the causal chain which encour- ages acceptance of a set of constraints which necessarily the case. They fail to distinguish are not in fact necessarily eternal or un- the broader concept of deviance from the more changeable (p. 175). -specific concept of crime which contributes It would seem, therefore, that we need to look 9 M. CLiNARD, ANOMIE AND DEVIANT BEHAVIOR ,(1964). at the diffusion of conceptions of society, crime BOOK REVIEWS and criminal motivation and demystify and namely, who makes the rules, and why? (p. correct these to help men change their individ- 220). ual and collective fate. While Matza is criti- While the need for sociological analysis of cized for not allowing for the possibility of rule-making is of paramount importance, the "authentic" delinquent accounts, the authors authors largely fail to incorporate significant seem unwilling to allow for deviant interpreta- socio-legal studies into their work. tions which are "false" and entail false con- In a chapter on "new conflict theorists" they sciousness. Of course, we, the students of devi- correctly note that the work of Turk and ance, will determine authenticity and false Quinney, among others, was largely a response consciousness. The authors again lapse into an to more recent events in the U.S. and the ina- intellectual paternalism. "Subterranean values bility of existing theories to account for these seem to deny the possibility of genuinely de- events. Might this not also be the case for The viant values" (p. 187, my emphasis). Who is New Ciminology. The conflict theorists are to determine their genuineness? Well, at least largely indicted for really being order theor- we will give this to "them"! ists. ethnomethodology, the In their discussion of A truly post-capitalist society is not, as in authors note that they wrote their critique be- Darendorf and the new conflict theorists of fore talking to "insiders," and they subse- deviance, a society in which there is simply a quently were convinced there "is no necessary reorganized plurality of interests or a plurality incompatibility between the work in the New of moral values and an ongoing readjustment Criminology and the work and discovery of of the power they wield: it is a society in micro-structural phenomena by ethnometho- which authority as such is divorced from the a society dologists" (p. 294). Would this have been the domination of men by men. It is also in which the power to criminalize-if not case had they talked to "insiders" from other abolished-is made subject to a 'genuine,' perspectives? In discussing ethnometho- rather than simply powerful consensus (p. this is a dologists they note a problem: "[n]ow 252). problem common to all phenomenological in- society? What is quiry, namely that our objectives in studying How do we arrive at this such a society with "au- deviance are not the same as those members or necessary to create and "genuine" consen- actors whose actions constitute deviance" thentic" relationships issues are not addressed substan- (p. 197). Why aren't they? What are our objec- sus? These this work and will hopefully be tives in studying deviance? Why should we tively in study deviance, particularly that of nuts, sluts, forthcoming. ° the authors begin to out- and perverts?1 This issue is important not In their conclusion for the new criminology. It must only for phenomenologists, but for all students line a basis the wider origins of society. be able to cover and connect act, immediate origins of the de- In a discussion of Marx and subsequent of the deviant origins of "Marxists," they suggest that: viant act, the actual act, immediate social reaction, wider origins of deviant reac- A full-blown Marxist theory of deviance, or tion, the outcome of the social reaction on the at least a theory of deviance deriving from a deviant's further action, and the nature of the Marxism so described, would be concerned to deviant process as a whole. All of this is develop explanations of the ways in which heavily imbued with a sense of the political particular historical periods, characterized by economy of deviance in a capitalist society. of social relationships and particular sets These formal requirements of a "truly social means of production, give rise to attempts by theory of deviance" are given in spacious gen- the economically and politically powerful to with few specific substantive examples. order society in particular ways ...It would eralities ask with greater emphasis the question that How does this theory relate to the "real world" Howard Becker poses (and does not face), of men and action, e.g., Watergate, Northern Ireland, SLA, FBI, CIA. Wounded Knee, etc.? lOLiazos, The Sociology of Poverty: Nuts, While the intellectual discourse is generally Sluts, and Perverts, 20 SocLAL PROBLumS 103 very good and at times brilliant, the relationship (1972). BOOK REVIEWS Vol. 65 between the previous chapters and the "new of inequalities of wealth and power, and in criminology" seems totally divorced from the particular of inequalities in property and life- world of men, action, and power. chances, is inevitably bound to fall into In conclusion, the authors state that: correctionalism. And all correctionalism is ir- reducibly bound up with the identification of We have, in other words, laid claim to have deviance with pathology (p. 281). constructed the formal elements of a theory "The task is to create a society in which the that would be adequate to move criminology facts of human diversity, whether personal, or- out of its own imprisonment in artificially seg- regated specifics. We have attempted to bring ganic or social, are not subject to the power to the parts together again in order to form the criminalize" (p. 282). This task will not be an whole (p. 279). easy one, for as Solzhenitsyn notes, It is well known that any organ withers Nonetheless, Chapters 1 - 9 seem almost en- away if it is not used. Therefore, if we know tirely divorced from Chapter 10, the conclu- that the Soviet Security organs, or Organs sion. In fact, the conclusion should be the first (and they christened themselves with this vile chapter in another book entitled The New Cri- word), praised and exalted above all living minology. Some glimpses of the role of the things, have not died off even to the extent of new criminologist and the nature of societal one single tenacle, but, instead, have grown change necessitated are provided in the au- new ones and strengthened their muscles-it is thors' final statements: easy to deduce that they have had constant exercise." It should be clear that a criminology which 11 A. SOLZHENITSYN, THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO is not normatively committed to the "abolition 25 (1974).

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