Overview of Current Trend in Criminological Thought (From Criminology and the Canadian System of Justice - Colloquia 1977-1978, P 11-24, 1978, Jacques Laplante, ed. - See NCJ-70525)

• NCJ Number: 70526
• Author(s): D Szabo
• Date Published: 1979
• Length: 14 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Best Practice/State-of-the-Art Review
• Language: French
• Country: Canada

Annotation

The five main currents of contemporary criminology -- clinical, sociological, Marxian, juristic, and radical -- are reviewed in this essay, which credits them all with potential contributions to the revitalization of the criminal justice system.

Abstract

Clinical criminology is a medical model of intervention with individual delinquents or criminal groups for treatment of their sickness (i.e., deviant behavior) within the criminal justice system. Hence, it involves the use of indeterminate sentences (until the offender had been cured), parole services (until he has been rehabilitated), and treatment programs in prison and outside. Sociological criminology analyzes the social processes (e.g., industrialization and urbanization) and social control mechanisms (e.g., the family, the schools) to understand the causes and remedies for crime. The only types of intervention contemplated by sociological criminology are of a social nature, such as community corrections. Marxian criminology is a political doctrine, which sees crime as reflecting the class struggle; criminals as victims of capitalism, based on the exploitation of one man by another; and the criminal justice system as a tool of the dominant classes. Juristic criminology postulates the autonomy of criminal law and is based on a legalistic model of free will, which implies guilt and mens rea, rather than sickness, in the criminal mind. Radical criminology (or anticriminology) attacks conventional morality as the source of discrimination, ostracism, rejection, incrimination, and stigmatization. According to radical criminology, only a total shakeup of the present system can create a new world in which individual and collective interests will coincide, bringing security for all. Although Canadian criminology partakes of all five currents, the most rational is the legalistic model of criminal justice offered by juristic criminology. This approach is capable of reconciling all the current trends and bridging the gap between sociology and criminology. The sociological immagination should be large enough to accommodate the sociology of social reaction as well as sociology of deviance. A bibliography containing 40 references is appended.