Description

Looking Back: Radical Criminology and Social Movements

The national and international circumstances surrounding the birth of the criminological journal Crime and Social Justice in 1974 are examined. Topics include social protest in Berkeley, California; the growth of the US prison system; contributions by European criminologists; movements in Scandinavia and South Africa; Japanese critical protest against prisons and the death penalty; Latin American repression; and developments in criminal justice policy since the 1970s. Shank reveals what was happening in 1974 in terms of the political-economic conditions and social movements that propelled the unlikely emergence of a radical criminology around the world. The article looks at promising developments after the repression and institutionalization of the initial radical thrust.

criminology, social movements

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 26, No. 2 (1999): 114-134