What survives of the notions, principles and values of critical criminology? Faced with contexts that could not be more dramatically different to those fostering critical approaches to crime and its control, what is left of the radical theories and practical initiatives that characterized it in the 1970s? This book argues that critical criminology today can be reimagined if new concepts are elaborated, which bring academic efforts close to the practices of social movements.
Building on an original collection of anti-hegemonic essays focused on specific criminological areas, including femicide, organized crime, drug use, punishment, state-corporate terrorism and financial crime, this book identifies the radical potential inherent in the choice of areas, topics and variables that critical criminologists can address today. In discussing concepts of distance, power, mercy and troublemaking, this book considers the relationship between critical criminology, social justice and activism.
An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to all those engaged with critical criminology, sociology and cultural studies.
1. Introduction 2. For a sociology of power 3. For a sociology of counter-power 4. Woman as colony 5. Political violence and behavioural economics 6. State-corporate terrorism 7. Pandemics, desire and melancholy 8. Hypotheses on the causes of financial crime 9. There is money in death 10. Civil war or transnational crime? 11. Convicts, crime and evil 12. Crime, punishment and utopia 13. Conclusion
Biography
Vincenzo Ruggiero is Professor of Sociology at Middlesex University in London. He has conducted research for many national and international agencies, including the European Commission and the United Nations. Since 2010, he has published the following single-authored books: Penal Abolitionism (2010), The Crimes of the Economy (2013), Power and Crime (2015), Dirty Money (2017) and Visions of Political Violence (2020). In 2016, he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Society of Criminology for his contribution to Critical Criminology.
These essays offer a distinctive and powerful agenda for an alternative and critical criminology. This is a criminology for the public sphere positing alliances with sites of resistance to, and the contestation of, power. It is a powerful, erudite, and passionate read. Here, Vincenzo Ruggiero is at his elegant and most compelling best.
Sandra Walklate, Eleanor Rathbone Chair of Sociology (Liverpool) Conjoint Chair of Criminology (Monash)
In this collection of essays, Vincenzo Ruggiero, one of the leading figures in the criminology of economic thought, has weighed in on the past, present and future of critical criminology. The result is an engaging and provocative assessment of the 'state of the field'. It should become required reading for critical and non-critical criminologists alike.
Gregg Barak, Professor Emeritus and author of Chronicles of a Radical Criminologist: Working the Margins of Law, Power, and Justice
This well written, researched, thoughtful and engaging book, written by one of the most interesting scholars in the field of Criminology and Criminal Justice, forces the reader to consider rarely addressed alternative perspectives in the field of Critical Criminology.
Jeffrey Ian Ross, Ph.D., University of Baltimore
