Standpunten en kanttekeningen

Kritische criminologie en preventie in het licht van een postmoderne conditie

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Abstract

Critical criminology and prevention in the light of a postmodern condition - Recent debates in critical criminology concern the growing body of theory and literature which has become known as ’left realism’. Left realists are concerned with developing a labour party agenda on law and order which not only challenges the conservative hegemony, but appeals to working class popular perceptions and experiences with crime and law and order. In the field of crime prevention, such alternative policy-proposals are elaborated and defended successfully : ensuring that meaningful work is at hand, providing decent housing through neighbourhood renovation, and ensuring that useful leisure facilities are available on a universal basis. When these options are discussed under a ’modern’ condition they seem logically defendable. They give rational answers to specific social mechanisms producing ’relative deprivation’, which according to left realists is a necessary element in the production of crime. If however these options are discussed under a ’postmodern’ condition, they lose their unproblematic status. They either lead towards an impossibilism in political praxis, or to the reproduction of exactly those social inequalities left realists firmly disapprove of. A paradox which urges critical criminologists to reconsider their theoretical positions and language with a view to defending the emancipatory goals of their propositions against a non-emancipatory postmodern impact on their traditional meaning. In this way the strategic and social relevance of theoretical language is again being taken into account.

How to Cite:

Hofman, H., (1996) “Kritische criminologie en preventie in het licht van een postmoderne conditie”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 41(2), 192–205. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.95234