The Production of Criminology

Abstract

0Criminology-in theory and practice-is a f o r m of cultural production.We are creating a way of understanding and a way of living in the world.Our production, however. is mediated by our location in the class structure. Whether our expressions are critical and reflexive or merely reflections of capitalism is shaped by our ability to think dialectically and by our conscious involvement in the class struggle. We are in Ihe position-intellectually and socially-to think about and act upon the production of a socialist future. e are at the same time products of our culture and creators W of it. People make'their own history, Marx (1963: 15) noted, "but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past." The objective material conditions of the time provide the setting for the possibilities of creation, change, and revolution. While our daily struggle is one of transforming the existing order, of removing conditions of oppression and making an authentic existence, the old social order will not perish until all the productive forces and contradictions of that order have become obstacles to its further development. Thus, history is made both subjectively and objectively, as the result of class struggle and as the development of the economic modes of production. AUTHOR'S NOTE: Prewnred in the theor.I'plenar.i.session a/ /he annual meeting of

Structural Theories and Race-Specific Drug Arrests: What Structural Factors Account for the Rise in Race-Specific Drug Arrests Over Time?

“…Before moving to the predictor variables, it is important to acknowledge an ongoing debate surrounding the use of drug arrest measures. There are two perspectives to consider-one being that a measure of drug arrests reflects enforcement patterns or official responses to crime (see Mosher, 2001;Quinney, 1979) and the other is that measures of drug arrests indicate actual drug behavior (Cohen, Felson, & Land, 1980;Rosenfeld & Decker, 1999), particularly at the city level (Rosenfeld, 1986). Although we are unable to empirically address this debate in the current study, our read of these arguments led us to conclude that our measures of drug arrests provide a useful indicator of the amount and/or volume of race-specific drug activity in a given area and thus can serve to gauge (at least the official accountability of) drug activity in urban cities.…”

The Contemporary Crises of Marxist Criminology

“…If there is a single concept around which the heavy hitters of American Marxist criminology have been willing to rally, it is class. We could find similar expressions in the work of Quinney (1970Quinney ( , 1974aQuinney ( , 1974bQuinney ( , 1975Quinney ( , 1977Quinney ( , and 1979; Platt (1969Platt ( , 1971Platt ( , 1973Platt ( , and 1974 and the Schwendingers (1964, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976a, and 1976b), but Chambliss is as good a guide to the centrality of class as any of the others:…”

Economia e criminalidade: uma avaliação dos custos da violência para o município de Governador Valadares, MG

“…Entre as correntes teóricas sobre crime e comportamento, três delas se destacam, a saber: a Economia do Crime (BECKER, 1968); a Teoria das Oportunidades do Crime (COHEN; FELSON, 1979); e os Neomarxistas (QUINNEY, 1979). A primeira, formulada pelo Nobel em economia Gary Becker, aponta que a decisão de um agente da sociedade em praticar atos criminosos é baseada nas incertezas em torno desta ação.…”