Crime, Critique and Utopia

by Malloch, Margaret; Munro, Bill

• ISBN13: 9781137009791
• ISBN10: 1137009799
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-05-30
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Crime, Critique and Utopia examines the relationship between Utopia and the political through an analysis of utopian conceptualisations around crime and justice. It addresses the relevance of utopian principles in relation to a range of issues of direct and contemporary relevance to criminology, investigating theoretical possibilities, the use of utopian methods, and the application of utopian principles, in the quest for a transformative agenda within criminology and beyond.

This book refines important social and historical themes of utopian construct from a criminological perspective, examining the interconnections between theoretical work on Utopia and political doctrines such as abolitionism and anarchism. It provides a critical analysis of criminal law and state policy on crime, considering various aspects of the utopian 'impulse' as it shapes criminological and abolitionist thinking.

This edited collection includes contributions from Sarah Armstrong (Glasgow University, UK), Lynne Copson (University of Edinburgh, UK), Michael Löwy (CNRS, France), Mike Nellis (University of Strathclyde, UK), Vincenzo Ruggiero (Middlesex University, UK), David Scott (University of Central Lancashire, UK) and Loïc Wacquant (University of California at Berkeley, USA).

Author Biography

Margaret Malloch is Senior Research Fellow with the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Stirling, UK. Her research interests cover a wide range of topics within the field of crime and social justice, key areas include: gender and justice, criminal justice responses to social issues and critical criminology.

Bill Munro is Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Stirling, UK. His research interests include Critical and Social Theory, Epistemology, Critical Criminology, Deviancy, Social Control, Justice in Transition and Punishment.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
1. Utopia and Its Discontents; Margaret Malloch and Bill Munro
2. Crime, Critique and Utopian Alternatives; Margaret Malloch
3. Utopia and Penal Constraint: The Frankfurt School and Critical Criminology; Bill Munro
4. Erich Fromm: From Messianic Utopia to Critical Criminology; Michael Lowy
5. Crime and Punishment In Classical and Libertarian Utopias; Vincenzo Ruggiero
6. Visualising an abolitionist real utopia: principles, policy and praxis; David Scott
7. Towards a Utopian Criminology; Lynne Copson
8. Using the Future to Predict the Past: Prison Population Projections and the Colonisation of Penal Imagination; Sarah Armstrong
9. Techno-Utopianism, Science Fiction and Penal Innovation: the case of Electronically Monitored Control; Mike Nellis
10. From Penal Dystopia to the Reassertion of Social Rights; Loïc Wacquant