Wednesday 26 March 2008

Principles of Marxist Criminology - A Progress Report

In the run-up to my hosting of the Carnival of Socialism this Friday, I thought it would be worth looking over the last draft of my Principles of Marxist Criminology and seeing how well I'm covering those principles with posts and whether I need to be thinking about more (as well as updating it in the near future - thanks for the repsonse - especially the post on Law and Disorder about it - very helpful stuff). To see the seocnd draft- go here http://leftwingcriminologist.blogspot.com/2008/02/principles-of-marxist-approach-to.html.

1) Marxist Theory Applied to Crime

So far I've posted on the relevance of marxist ideas around Alienation and then a further post relating this to Alcoholism. I've also posted on the Marxist theory of the State too regarding the comments of Marx and Engels on the Paris Commune. However - areas that I've thought of some far include talking about relative deprivation and discussing more on the state (ie. Lenin, Bob Fine).

2) Development of Criminal Justice and Relation to Economy

So far I haven't done all that much here apart from a review of a book on the Emergence of Prisons and a piece on Political Economy and Prisons. I could do some stuff on probation perhaps and also policing too.

3) Class Approach to Crime

Haven't really covered anything here at all - I don't think - perhaps the article on Human Rights fits here

4) Internationalism

This has experienced a sort of boom recently - partly becuase of an upcoming essay. There's been posts on Imperialism and International Criminal Justice.

5) How Crime Affects of Layers of the Population other than the Working Class

I haven't really covered this at all. Perhaps becuase this point is really a restatement of point 3? I'm meaning to do a post on domestic violence at some point

6) Crime in Revolutionary Periods

I've done three posts in this area, one on the Russian Revolution, one on just before the collapse of Stalinist Russia and one on Dual Power in Russia and Portugal. I'm also looking into doing something on Cuba - and there always the series on Venezuela which will have a new post in the next month or so.

7) Role of the State - see 1 where i discussed this

8) Examining Previous Contributions to this Area

I've reviewed several books now on Left Realism and Critical Criminology - the latest was a look at an interductory chapter by Jock Young

9) How To Change Criminal Justice for the Better

I think the pieces I've written on the criminal justice system fit in here - the latest is Prisons: Lumbering Into Further Crisis

I've also done posts on corporate crime, criminal justice workers unions too. I'd also like to do some stuff on environmental crime too. Then there's the question of where do human rights and civil liberties fit - and what about my posts on Wales and Criminal Justice? Also - as was mentioned by the Law and Disorder blog - where does the sociology of law fit in to this. These are questions I'd like help with an will attempt to address in the next draft.

1 comment:

Joseph Dubonnet said...

Here is a review the friend I mentioned earlier wrote a while back:

http://www.cjsonline.ca/reviews/illegaldrugs.html

I think he is part of the critical school (in a broad sense) but he is also very influenced by Social Constructionism. He now teaches at Guelph University in Ontario, Canada.