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Volume 65 | Issue 2 Article 5

1974 Rise of , The Gresham M. Sykes

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Recommended Citation Gresham M. Sykes, Rise of Critical Criminology, The, 65 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 206 (1974)

This Criminology 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. TIE JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW & CeNnOLOGY Vol. 65, No. 2 Copyright 0 1974 by Northwestern University School of Law Printed in U.S.A.

CRIMINOLOGY

THE RISE OF CRITICAL CRIMINOLOGY

GRESHAM M. SYKES*

I. especially evident in the area of sociological In the last ten to fifteen years, criminology in the theory. Social structure, it was said, had been United States has witnessed a transformation of interpreted in terms of consensus, but it was really one of its most fundamental for inter- conflict that lay at the heart of social organiza- preting criminal behavior. The theory, methods tion. People in positions of power had traditionally and applications of criminology have all been ex- been analyzed in terms of bureaucratic roles aimed posed to a new scrutiny, and there seems to be at the rational accomplishment of organizational little doubt that the field will be involved in an objectives. In reality, people in positions of power intricate controversy for many years to come. It is were motivated largely by their own selfish in- the nature of that controversy, its sources and terests. A great variety of social problems had been possible consequences with which this paper is viewed by as flowing from individual concerned. pathologies. In fact, however, this approach merely In the social turbulence of the 1960's, institu- disguised the extent to which the existing social tions of higher education were at the center of the system was at fault, and thus helped to buttress storm. Students supplied much of the motive force, the status quo. Sociology had long been wedded to and the university frequently served as a stage for, an evolutionary model of social change, whereas as well as a target of, conflict. The university, the truth of the matter was that real social change however, is more than a place or a social organiza- came about not through small increments but tion. It is also a collection of academic disciplines, through far more radical leaps. and these too felt the tremors of the time. Soci- This debate, which broke out into the open in ology, in particular, was subjected to a barrage of the sixties, involved a great many of the intellec- criticism from a variety of sources, and it is within tual specialties of sociology, but it was particu- that framework that we need to examine the larly evident in the field of criminology. The study change that has overtaken criminology. of , its causes and its cure had long been re- It was the special claim of sociology-as almost garded as a borrower rather than a lender when it every introductory textbook in the field was quick came to the intellectual substance of the social to point out-that the discipline had largely freed sciences. It had seemed a bit marginal to the major itself from social philosophy. If the status of concerns of a science of society, from the viewpoint sociology as a science was not exactly clear, there of many sociologists-perhaps because of its con- was no doubt about its dedication to scientific nections with the study of social problems, which methods and objectivity1 Sociology, it was said, many sociologists had viewed as being too deeply was value-free. enmeshed in value judgments. Now, however, the It was precisely this point, however, that served growing argument about the objectivity of soci- as the focus of attack for a number of students ology suddenly found many of its crucial themes and teachers. 2 Sociology, they argued, was still exemplified in how academic criminology had contaminated by the bias and subjectivity of handled the subject of crime. particular interest groups in society. The claim to the cool neutrality of science was a sham. This was II. * Department of Sociology, University of Iowa, Iowa As a special field of knowledge, criminology bad City, Iowa. its origins in the attempt to reform the criminal I See, e.q., Mazyur, The Littlest Science, 3 Am. Soci- OLOGIST 195 (1968). law of the eighteenth century. Bentham, Romilly 2See, e.g., Gouldner, Anti-Minotaur: The Myth of a and Beccaria were all children of the Enlighten- Value-Free Sociology, 9 SOCIAL PROBLEMS 199 (1962). ment, and they shared the objective of making the 19741 CRITICAL CRIMINOLOGY law a more "just,humane and rational instrument proving them right. The validity of ideas is to be of the state. With the rise of the Positivist School established by impersonal standards of proof; and in the nineteenth century, however, with its learned authority must stand on an equal footing optimistic faith in science, criminology began to with the brashest newcomer when it comes to the move away from the domain of legal thinkers-a empirical testings of facts. Scientific knowledge movement that became particularly marked in the must be shared with one's colleagues, and no in- United States after 1900.3 In some parts of Europe, formation is to be kept secret because it might and in Latin America, criminology maintained its bring an advantage or because it might be dis- links with jurisprudence, but in the United States turbing. Finally, the scientist is supposed to be we witnessed a peculiar split. Criminal law be- under the sway of an organized skepticism that came a subject matter for lawyers and law schools; accepts no conclusion as final, no fact as forever criminology, on the other hand, turned up in the proven. Every issue can be reopened and re- liberal arts curriculum of almost every college and examined.- university, largely a creature of the social sciences These norms may not always be followed by and particularly sociology. social scientists as they go about their work, but In some ways, this might have seemed to be a in a rough way they do guide much scientific reasonable division of labor. A knowledge of the behavior, including the behavior of sociologists. criminal law was, after all, a part of the lawyer's The settling of legal disputes, however, is cut on a professional training, even if, until fairly recently, very different pattern. Lawyers are typically in- it tended to lack the eclat that attached to areas volved as partisans with a far from disinterested of law that were potentially more financially pro- concern in the outcome of a case. At law, much is ductive. The lawyer's interest in the criminal law made of the weight of authority, and the discredit- was apt to center on the nature of the legal rules ing of arguments on an ad hmninem basis is a and their interpretation by the courts; and his familiar occurrence. Information may be withheld concern with why people break the rules and what on the grounds of privileged communication or happens to them after they leave the courtroom with the idea that it would distort the reasoning was likely to be rather fleeting. These were ques- of the triers of fact. There is a strong impulse to tions, however, that fell naturally into the theo- settle cases quickly and not to reopen old disputes. retical and conceptual framework of the sociologist. These differences in the intellectual styles of Often enough, he had neither the training nor the professional work in sociology and in law appear inclination to enter the thoughtways of the legal to have greatly increased the difficulty of exchang- scholar to pursue the law's meaning of iens rea, ing ideas between the two fields, and reinforced 4 search and seizure and conspiracy. their separate development. In any event, the It is possible that this matter of thoughtways fact that criminal law and criminology tended to was as important as any special taste in subject remain in separate academic compartments over matter in the mutual neglect exhibited by crimi- much of the recent past led to a number of un- nologists and scholars of criminal law. The study of fortunate consequences. First, many aspects of the the law, it has been said, is organized for action, criminal law's operation, such as arrest procedures, while the social sciences are organized for the the activities of the grand jury, trials, and the accumulation of knowledge; and this aphorism statutory revision of the criminal law, often re- points to a fundamental conflict between the in- mained outside the purview of criminologists. tellectual discipline of law and sociology that Some attention was given to these matters, it is helped to keep their practitioners apart. As Robert true, but the bulk of the attention of academic Merton has indicated, sociologists are guided in criminology was devoted to questions of crime their work by the scientific ethos, not in terms of causation and . One need but review an individual ethical choice, but as a matter of textbooks in criminology of ten or twenty years institutionalized professional norms. The search for ago to be struck by the short shrift frequently knowledge is to be undertaken in a spirit of neu- accorded the criminal law and other issues that trality, and the scientist must have the same loom large in the eyes of the legal scholar and that passion for proving his hypotheses wrong as for are, in fact, vital to understanding the relationship a See H. MANNHEIM, COMPA.RATVE CRIMINOLOGY (1965). 5See R. MERTON, SociAL TnEORY AND SocrAL STRuc- 4 See R. QtiNNEY, Tnm PROBLEM OF CRWm (1970). TuRE (1949). GRESHAM M. SYKES [Vol. 65

between crime and society. Second, the concept of the shift appears to have been rooted 'in the same crime was apt to remain singularly crude as the social forces that were modifying sociology as an social scientist pursued his goal of building an academic discipline. By the beginning of the 1970's, explanatory schema for criminal behavior. A it was evident that a new strain of thought had great variety of acts were frequently lumped to- entered American criminology, challenging many gether under headings such as "norm violation" of its basic assumptions. and "delinquency," and the careful refinements of Some have spoken of a "," legal thought were shoved to one side. Many of but the term is misleading since it suggests a par- the distinctions were quite irrelevant, it is true, ticular ideological underpinning that probably from the viewpoint of the social sciences, for they does not exist. I think "critical criminology" is a were based on the needs of prosecution, an out- somewhat better term, at least for the purposes moded concept of man as a hedonistic calculator, of this discussion, keeping in mind that all such and arbitrary, inconsistent categories such as summary phrases can obscure as well as illuminate. felonies and misdemeanors. But the law at least The themes involved in this new orientation can recognized that "crime" was far from a homogene- be roughly summarized as follows: ous form of behavior, while criminology exhibited First, there is a profound skepticism accorded a disquieting tendency to speak of crime and the any individualistic theory of crime causation. It criminal in general. A greater interplay between is not merely biological theories and psychological the two fields might have stimulated efforts to theories of personality maladjustment that have build useful typologiesA Third, the fact that the been abandoned. Sociological theories, dependent two fields had so little to do with one another on notions of the individual's "defects" due to meant ,that many of the findings emerging from inadequate socialization or peer group pressures, criminology received a less than sympathetic ear are also viewed with a wary eye. The problem has from those more closely tied to the criminal law. become not one of identifying the objectively de- Serious doubts about the effectiveness of juvenile termined characteristics that separate the crim- services, , probation and so on were ex- inal and non-criminal, but of why some persons pressed by criminologists, but their voices seldom and not others are stigmatized with the label of seemed to carry beyond the groves of academe. "criminal" in a social process. "If preconceptions are to be avoided," writes Austin Turk, "a criminal III. is most accurately defined as any individual who In the late fifties and early sixties, a distinct is identified as such ...." 7 The roots of this idea change began to make its appearance. Topics that in are dear enough.8 A number of had long received relatively little attention in writers in criminology today, however, have pushed criminology (such as the day-to-day operations of the idea within a hairline of the claim that the the police) began to be examined by increasing only important reality is the act of labeling-and numbers of sociologists. The crude classifications not because labeling ignores who is a criminal and of earlier years began to give way to the empirical who is not, but because-we are all criminals. study of. relatively specific types of criminal ac- Second, what I have called "critical criminology" tivity. The criminal law, which had been taken as is marked by a profound shift in the interpretation a fixed parameter for so long by so many criminol- of motives behind the actions of the agencies that ogists, began to be examined with a much more deal with crime. Many writers, of course, had long inquiring turn of mind. In short, the rather narrow been pointing out that the "criminal-processing viewpoint of criminology in the United States system" was often harsh and unfair, and, more spe- began to be enlarged and much of its proper sub- cifically, that the poor and members of minority ject matter-long left to others-began to be groups suffered from an acute disadvantage. Few addressed at a serious and systematic level. The criminologists, however, were willing to go so far change, however, was not mainly because the as to claim that the system was inherently unjust. criminal law and criminology had somehow found Rather, the usual argument was that our legal a way to end their long estrangement, although agencies were frequently defective due to lack of this played some part. Rather, a major reason for 7 A. TuR, CRnnNA=TY AND THE LEGAL ORDER 18 6 Extended efforts to construct typologies of crime (1969). are fairly recent. See CLINARD AND Qo INY, CRIUNA See E. Sc'nuR, LABELING DEvIANT BEHAVIOR BEHAVIOR SYsTEMs: A TYPOLOGY (1973). (1971). 19741 CRITICAL CRIMINOLOGY funds, unenlightened policies, and individual few in the manner of a conquered province." .The stupidity, prejudice and corruption. Now, how- argument was not that murder, rape and ever, among a large number of writers, the imputa- had suddenly become respectable but that popular tion of motives is of a different order: The operation attitudes toward the sanctity of property,. the of legal agencies is commonly interpreted as 1) the sanctity of the physical person, and the rather self-conscious use of the law to maintain the status puritanical morality embedded in the law were quo for those who hold the power in society; or far less uniform than American criminology had 2) activity aimed at maintaining organization been willing to admit. self-interests, with "careerism" as both the carrot Fourth, American criminologists had long been and the stick. If the system is unjust, then, we are skeptical of the accuracy of official crime statistics not to look for relatively minor structural defects which they nonetheless accepted, reluctantly, as a or random individual faults. Rather, the criminal major source of data for their field. The Uniform law and its enforcement are largely instruments Crime Reports of the Federal Bureau of Investi- deliberately designed for the control of one social gation were, after all, "the only game in town," class by another. 9 as far as national figures on criminal behavior Third, the rightfulness of the criminal law had were concerned. If the use of other official statis- been questioned infrequently in the work of Amer- tics derived from cities, states and particular legal ican criminologists, even if they were willing to agencies were almost always coupled with dis- admit that its application sometimes left some- claimers, still, they were used. thing to be desired. The insanity plea, the defini- The problem with these statistics, as criminolo- tion of , the death sentence, gists were quick to point out, was that they could the prohibition of gambling-these areas and a lead to either overestimation or an underestima- few others were open to vigorous critical scrutiny. tion of the total amount of crime in any given By and large, however, the great bulk of the crim- year, but no one could be sure which was the case. inal law was taken as expressing a widely shared Furthermore, the components of the total crime set of values. In any event, the question of "right- rate might be in error, and some of the components fulness" was not a suitable topic for the social might be too high while others were too low. The sciences. In the last decade or so, however, there data were based on thousands of local pQlice was a growing number of criminologists who found jurisdictions throughout the country, and even the FBI refused to vouch for their accuracy. that assumption unrealistic. We could no longer It was clear that a part of the difficulty was the accept the idea presented by Michael and Adler fact that the police had a stake in the amount of some forty years ago, said Richard Quinney, that crime recorded in official records: if the crime rate "most of the people in any community would went down, the police could win public acclaim probably agree that most of the bahavior which is for their efficiency in dealing with the crime prob- proscribed by their criminal law is socially unde- 10 lem; if the crime rate went up, the police could sirable." According to the emerging "critical demand greater financial and political support as -criminology," the criminal law should not be they fought their battle with the underworld. viewed as the collective moral judgments of society This issue, however, was apt to be treated in a promulgated by a government that was defined as rather desultory fashion, in terms of developing a legitimate by almost all people. Instead, our society theory about the relationship between crime and was best seen as a Gebeitsverband, a territorial society, or simply noted as one more difficulty group living under a regime imposed by a ruling placed in the path of securing precise data for the construction of a theory of crime causation. The 9See,' e.g., 3. DouGLAs, CanME AND JusTicE ix AmEaXlcAN SociETY xviii (J. Douglas ed. 1971): essential task was to find ways to get "better" If there were no groups trying to control the activi- data, either by seeing to it that official statistics ties of other groups, and capable of exercising suffi- cient power to try to enforce their wills upon those became more accurate, or by finding alternative other groups through the legislative processes, there ways to gather information about the true inci- would be no laws making some activities '' and there could, consequently, be no 'criminals'.... dence of criminal behavior, such as self-reporting [C]riminal laws are specifically enacted by the mid- methods or sociological surveys using the reports dle and upper classes to place the poorer classes under the more direct control of the police.... "See M. WEBER, Tna THEORY oF Soc=x AND Fco- 10R..QumINEY, THE PROBLEM OF CRax 29 (1970). Nosfic ORGANIZATION 337 (T. Parsons ed. 1947). " GRESHAM M. SYKES [Vol. 65 of victims to uncover the amount of crime. Since society; 2) protect their property and physical the sixties, however, another view of the matter safety from the depredations of the have-nots, has become increasingly popular in criminological even though the cost may be high in terms of the thought. Rather than dismissing the interest of legal rights of those it perceives as a threat; and law enforcement agencies in crime statistics as an 3) extend the definition of illegal or criminal be- unfortunate source of error, the collection and havior to encompass those who might threaten dissemination of information about the incidence the status quo. The middle classes or the lower- of crime has become, for many, an important middle classes are drawn into this pattern of dom- theoretical variable in its own right. The crime ination either because 1) they are led to believe rate, writes Peter Manning, is "simply a construc- they too have a stake in maintaining the status tion of police activities," and the actual amount of quo; or 2) they are made a part of agencies of 2 crime is unknown and probably unknowable.' social control and the rewards of organizational Whether there is more or less "actual" criminality, careers provide inducements for keeping the poor notes Richard Quinney, is not the issue. "The in their place. crucial question is why societies and their agencies The coercive aspects of this arrangement are report, manufacture, or produce the volume of hidden--at least in part-by labeling those who crime that they do." 18 challenge the system as "deviants" or "criminals" The legitimacy of the rules embedded in the when such labels carry connotations of social criminal law could no longer be taken for granted, pathology, psychiatric illness and so on. If these then, and neither could the credibility of the gov- interpretative schemes are insufficient to arouse ernment that reported on their violation. The most widespread distaste for the rule-breaker as "bad" fruitful line of inquiry with regard to the causes of or "tainted," official statistics can serve to create inaccuracy is not chance error or simple bias. a sense of a more direct and personal danger in Instead, we must look for a systematic distortion the form of a crime wave that will convince many 14 that is part of the machinery for social control. people (including many of the people in the lower classes) that draconian measures are justified. IV. The poor, according to this viewpoint, may or "Critical criminology" cannot, I think, be may not break the legal rules more often than viewed as merely a matter of emphasis, with its others, although they will certainly be arrested major themes no more than bits and pieces of the more often and treated more harshly in order to conventional wisdom of the field. The set of ideas prevent more extensive nonconformity. In a sense, do form a coherent whole that is sufficiently differ- they are expendable in the interest of general de- ent from much of American criminology of the terence. In any event, they are probably driven period immediately before and after World War in the direction of illegal behavior, even if they II to warrant the label "new." At the heart of do not actually engage in it, because 1) the rules this orientation lies the perspective of a stratified imposed on them from above have little relation- society in which the operation of the criminal law ship to the normative prescriptions of their own is a means of controlling the poor (and members subculture; 2) the material frustrations of the of minority groups) by those in power who use the lower classes in a consumer society where the fruits legal apparatus to 1) impose their particular mor- of affluence are publicized for all, but available ality and standards of good behavior on the entire only to some, prove almost unbearable; and 3) there is generated among the lower classes a deep 2Manning, The Police: Mandate, Strategies, and hostility to a social order in which they are not Appearances, in Cn AND JUSTICE IN AImEscAN SocIRTY 169 (J. Douglas ed. 1971). allowed to participate and had little hand in the 13R. QunnqNY, supra note 4, at 122. making. '4 See Biderman and Reiss, Jr., On Exploring the The perspective sketched in above would seem 'Dark Figure' of Crime, 374 ANmNAs 15 (1967): Any set of crime statistics, including those of the to fit well with a radical view of American society, , involves some evaluative, institutional pro- or at least with an ideological position on the left cessing of people's reports. Concepts, definitions, quantitive models, and theories must be adjusted to side of the political spectrum. While this might the fact that the data are not some objectively ob- possibly account for the attention the perspective servable universe of 'criminal acts,' but rather those events defined, captured and processed as has received from some writers in the field of such by some institutional mechanism. criminology (and some students with a very jaun- 1974] CRITICAL CRIMINOLOGY

diced view of the capitalist-industrial social order), and the legal rules could be more easily interpreted, I would very much doubt that critical criminology at least by some, as part of a social order imposed can be neatly linked to any special political posi- by a ruling elite. "Property is theft," said Proud- tion."h hon in 1840. In the 1960's, his curt saying had At the same time, it does not appear that this taken on a new bite. new viewpoint in criminology simply grew out of Second, the growth of a counter-culture in the the existing ideas in the field in some sort of auto- United States in the last decade admittedly remains matic process where pure logic breeds uncontami- within the realm of those ideas that are far from nated by the concerns and passions of the times. precise. Yet, there seems no question that a shift Nor does it appear that a flood of new data burst in values and ideas did take place and that the upon the field, requiring a new theoretical synthe- use of drugs-particularly marijuana--was a major sis. Instead, as I have suggested at the beginning theme. The arguments about drugs have been of this article, it seems likely that the emergence repeated so often, the facts and theories elaborated of critical criminology is a part of the intellectual upon in such familiar detail, that discussion of the ferment taking place in sociology in general, and subject has taken on the appearance of a litany. both have much of their source in the socio-his- Nonetheless, for present purposes, it is important torical forces at work in the 1960's. to point out that millions of people engaged in Among the many elements that have been in- behavior they regarded as harmless, but that was volved, there are at least three social-historical defined by society as a crime-not a minor or changes that appear to have played a major role. relatively harmless breach of the law, according to First, the impact of the Vietnam war on American the authorities, but a serious, dangerous offense. society has yet to be thoroughly analyzed and Whatever may have been the consequences in assessed, but it is clear that it has had an influ- terms of popular attitudes toward the law and ential part in the rise of a widespread cynicism law-enforcement agencies, another reaction was concerning the institutions of government, the let loose, namely, a long skeptical look at traditional motives of those in power, and the credibility of ideas about the nature of the criminal and the official pronouncements. The authority of the causes of criminal behavior. state has been called into question, including the In addition, as a consumer-oriented middle authority of the state made manifest in the law as class wedded to establishment values emerged as its instrument. The good intentions-indeed, the a favorite whipping boy in the analysis of what good sense-of those running the apparatus of the was wrong with American life, evidence of white- state have, for many, become suspect. The truth collar crime took on a new prominence.' 6 Far from of official statements, whether it be body counts or being a form of behavior largely confined to those crime counts, is no longer easily accepted among at the bottom of the social heap, crime was every- many segments of the population. The notion of a where. "If you are a typical American citizen," Social Contract as the basis of government may says Erik Olin Wright, "chances are that in your have been long recognized as a fiction in American life you have committed some crime for which life, but it was also widely accepted as a metaphor you could have been sent to jail or ." '7 If expressing a belief in government by consent. In this were true, and if the people caught up and the 1960's, there were many people (including punished by the system of were so the many in the social sciences) who felt that largely drawn from the lower classes, then the metaphor was coming apart. Government was far machinery of the criminal law must be far from more apt to be seen as manipulation and coercion, fair or impartial. If you were labeled a criminal, 11In the current intellectual climate, there are a great something more than criminal behavior must be many pressures to identify particular scientific ideas with particular ideological positions. Ideas and ideology, involved. however, still exhibit a peculiar independence despite 6 strident claims that they must go together; and if some It should be pointed out, to underline the idea criminologists believe that the viewpoint of critical that these ideas were not the sole property of a partic- criminology is something that must be considered, ular ideological position, that attacks on the middle there is no iron necessity that ties them to either a class style of life often came from the Right as well as liberal or a conservative stance. For an illuminating the Left, with much discussion of the perils of a lower class moving into affluence. examination of the issue in another field, see Herrn- middle17 stein, On Challenging an Orthodoxy, 55 ComrNTAR E. WRiGHT, THE PoLITIcs op 3 52 (1973). (1973). GRESHAM M. SYKES [Vol. 65

Third, the rise of political protest in the 1960's a viewpoint, on the other hand, urges us to look in took on a variety of forms, ranging from heated one direction rather than another, points to prom- discussions to bloody confrontations in the streets. ising lines of inquiry, singles out one interpretation It became clear that even the most dispassionate from a set of possible interpretations dealing with of observers would have to agree that in a number the same set of facts. In this sense, the viewpoint of instances the police power of the state had been of critical criminology as it stands today probably used illegally to suppress political dissent. Some cannot be said to be true or false. Rather, it is a accounts, such as those dealing with the deliberate bet on what empirical research and theoretical elimination of the Black Panther leadership, might development in the field will reveal in the future. be shown to have been slipshod in their facts; In many ways, I think the bet is not a bad one. other accounts might be hopelessly confusing when However, before examining what some of the it came to pinning down precisely the illegality of contributions of critical criminology might be, let police actions. Enough evidence remained, how- us look briefly at its more obvious defects. In the ever, to show that the police had been used in first place, criminologists writing from this per- many instances beyond the limits of the law to spective have a tendency to uncover the latent silence political opposition. In addition, there were functions of the criminal law and its operation and a large number of cases (more murky, perhaps, in then convert these latent functions into manifest terms of being able to disentangle the facts) in ones-unfortunately, all too easily.19 That is to which it was believed that the law had acted say, the administration of the criminal law fre- legally to apprehend and punish a law breaker, quently works to the disadvantage of the poor, but in which the law's actions were due to the members of minority groups and the uneducated. individual's social and political beliefs rather than It is then assumed, often with little concrete evi- to his criminal behavior. The criminal law, in dence, that this, in fact, is the intended and recog- short, was seen by many as becoming more than nized goal of those administering the criminal a device for controlling run-of-the-mill criminality. law. The task of sociological analysis, however, It was becoming an arm of Leviathan, not as a requires a good deal more than this rather super- matter of abstract theory, but as something di- ficial imputation of motive which is apt to de- rectly, experienced or immediately observed. 8 generate into glib cynicism. It was the intellectual climate produced by these In the second place, a number of writers who are and-similar social-historical events, I would argue, exploring the ideas we have presented under the that played a major part in the rise of critical heading of "critical criminology" often use a model criminology, as much as any forces at work within of that is either overly simpli- the field of traditional criminology itself. The new fied or ambiguous: We are frequently presented perspective is touched by ideology, but not deter- with the poor on the one hand, and the Establish- mined by it; incorporates points made before, but ment or those in power on the other, with a vaguely builds something different; and offers a new inter- defined middle class being portrayed sometimes as pretation or point of view rather than a vast another victim of injustice and sometimes as a quantity of new data. All of this, of course, leaves co-opted agent of those on the top of the socio- untouched the issue of the potential contribution economic scale. In reality, however, there is prob- of this perspective to the study of crime and ably a great deal of variation in different socio- society. economic groups in attitudes toward the criminal law and its administration (such as lower V. class support of the police and upper class use of drugs); Is critical criminology valid? The question is and, if this is true, the idea that the criminal law really an unanswerable one, I believe, because is predominantly something imposed from above what we are confronted with is not so much a has need to be substantially modified. body of precise, systematic theoretical propositions In the third place, we may all indeed be crimi- as a viewpoint, a perspective, or an orientation- terms that I have deliberately used throughout 119I am here following the usage provided by Robert Merton, who defines manifest functions as the objec- the discussion. A theory states the relationships tive consequences of social action intended and recog- among a number of variables that are well defined; nized by the actors involved, whereas latent functions are consequences that are neither intended nor recog- 18 See T. BECKER, POLITICAL TRIALs (1971). nized. See R. MERTON, supra note 5, at ch. 1. CRITICAL CRIMINOLOGY nals, in the sense that most adults have committed how the legal apparatus designed for the control of an act at one time or another that would be called crime takes on a life of its own, and begins to a crime by the criminal law. This does not mean, pursue objectives that may have little to do with however, that we are all murderers, rapists, modifying the crime rate. It directs needed atten- robbers, burglars and auto thieves. Persistent tion to the relationship between the political criminals or criminals considered serious may be order and nonconformity, thus revitalizing one of singled out for the law's attention without reducing sociology's most profound themes, the relationship a criminal conviction to a mere label that has no between the individual and the state. And it connection with an objective reality. Labeling impels us, once again, to analyze equality before theory in sociology has never quite come to grips the law as a basic element of a democratid society. with the relationship between the dynamics of the As T. H. Marshall has pointed out, much of the labeling process and the realities of the behavior history of the last 250 years or so in Western being categorized; its tendency toward solipsism societies can be seen as an attempt to achieve had been noted' by others.20 If critical criminology citizenship for all, which he defines as a kind of i to make a significant contribution to a sociology basic human equality associated with the boncept of crime, it will need to avoid the error of believing of full membership in a community.21 The concept that because the legal stigma of crimes does not of legal equality emerged in the eighteenth century, match the occurrence of crime-in-general in the the concept of political equality in the nineteenth, population, the stigma is necessarily based on and the concept of social equality in the twentieth. irrelevant factors such as income and race. Certain But none of the gains can be taken for' grantd, patterns of criminal behavior may still have much for they can be lost as well as won. In the' adminis- to do with the matter. tration of the criminal law in our society today, While recognizing these strictures, I think it there is ample evidence that our ideals of equality can be argued that "critical criminology" holds before the law are being compromised by the facts out the promise of having a profound impact on our of income and race in an industrial, highly buieau- thinking about crime and society. It forces an cratized social order. If a "critical crirnin1ogy" inquiry into precisely how the normative content can help us solve that issue, while still confronting of the criminal law is internalized in different the need to control crime, it will contribute a segments of society, and how norm-holding is great deal. actually related to behavior. It makes us examine 21T. H. MARSHALL, CITZENsHIP AND SocLAL CLAss ,20 See, e.g., E. ScHuR, supra note 8. (1950).