NCJ Number
173769
Date Published
1997
Length
270 pages
Annotation
Postmodern criminology has recently emerged as a perspective that questions many of the core assumptions of modernist thought, and the use of its conceptual tools offers the potential for developing a better understanding of the various configurations of repressive forces and directions for social change.
Abstract
Some of the key themes in postmodern criminology are discussed, in response to the lack of published materials that deal with theoretical integrative work, applications, and recent developments in studying postmodern criminology. The goal is to stimulate discussion on differences between modernist and postmodernist thinkers in criminology and law. Twelve essays on postmodern criminology are organized into three parts. The first part focuses on theoretical integration, while the second part covers application. The third part examines emerging postmodern methodologies, integration, and application. Essays in the first part address prominent differences between modernist and postmodernist thought; contributions of topology, psychoanalytic semiotics, and chaos theory to the decentered subject in law; borromean knots and the constitution of sense in juridico- discursive production; and constitutive criminology. Essays in the second part discuss affirmative postmodern analysis in law, crime, and penology, with emphasis on jailhouse lawyers, prisoner litigation, the necessity defense, substantive justice, oppositional linguistic practice, and constitutive penology. Essays in the third part consider the integration and application of emerging postmodern methodologies. They specifically deal with chaos and criminology, meta-modeling, catastrophic crime theory and peacemaking. References, notes, and figures