Sociology & Criminology for a Changing World
Class, State, and Crime: On the Theory and Practice of Criminal Justice (1977) by Richard Quinney is one of the most influential Marxist analyses of crime and social control in the United States. The book combines a materialist analysis of society with a radical critique of the state’s penal system and is a key text
Punishment and Social Structure by Georg Rusche and Otto Kirchheimer is considered a groundbreaking work of critical criminology. First published in 1939, it argues that penal systems do not merely follow moral or legal principles but are shaped primarily by economic structures and power relations. The authors analyze the historical development of punishment in relation
Critical criminology is not a single, unified theory but an approach that analyses crime, law, and criminal justice as deeply embedded in social power relations. It challenges conventional criminology’s focus on individual offenders by examining how inequality, state power, and ideological control shape definitions of crime and practices of punishment. At its core, critical criminology
Critical, Marxist and Conflict theories in criminology offer a fundamental critique of traditional crime theories that focus on individual pathology or socialisation failures. Instead of asking why individuals offend in isolation, these perspectives explore how definitions of crime, mechanisms of control, and punishment practices are shaped by social inequalities, power structures, and historical conflicts. They