NCJ Number
91799
Journal
Humanity and Society Volume: 6 Issue: 3 Dated: (August 1982)
Editor(s)
D O Friedrichs,
M D Schwartz
Date Published
1982
Length
127 pages
Annotation
This series of essays applies the humanistic perspective to a variety of conceptual and practical criminal justice issues, including the development of a radical humanistic perspective, social control, implications of criminological research for racial discrimination, and criminal sanctions for corporate misbehavior.
Abstract
The opening paper explores the relationship between and potential for synthesis of humanist sociology and Marxist humanism in the development of a humanistic criminology, followed by an essay that develops the argument for humanizing social control by developing a structure for ordering human behavior so as to provide for the toleration of human creativity and variance in behavior and status attainment. Another essay notes that the focus and subsequent funding of research, the methodological techniques used in collecting and analyzing data, and the application of research findings may produce unintended racial consequences; suggestions are offered for research design that will reduce the generation of such consequences. The presence of crime and deviance among the middle- and upper-class on college campuses is noted in one paper, and the toleration of such behavior by college administrators and college communities under elaborate rationalizations by perpetrators is argued to be much of the basis for subsequent white-collar crime. The difficulties of controlling illegal corporate behavior are identified in one paper, and some ways are suggested for controlling it legally as a step toward greater public control of the illegal activities of corporate actors. After developing the concept of mutual aid as the social basis of justice and moral community in one of the remaining essays, concluding essays treat contemporary directions in critical criminology and a book review of Miller's 'Terrorism and Hostage Negotiations' (1980). Essay references are provided.