Convict Criminology

A new school of thought in the world of criminology is on the horizon, and for me, it is a breath of fresh air. The ideas of Convict Criminology seek to “…[challenge] the way crime and correctional problems are traditionally represented and discussed by researchers, policymakers, and politicians.” Given the state of our current justice system, this is a new and refreshing perspective in the development of system reform. For those of you who were interested in either of my past two posts, Kai T. Erikson and Richard Quinney, Convict Criminologists seem to be critical of the positivist, labeling, and functionalist perspectives of crime and deviance, and, from what I have seen so far, align themselves more with the constructionist conflict approach, much like Quinney.

Their full title for this perspective, the New School of Convict Criminology, expresses their interest in ideas that aren’t exactly “new”. Their use of “new” actually refers to Taylor, Walton, and Young's (1973) seminal work The New Criminology.

We can assume from the title that the role of convicts and ex-convicts are to play a vital role in the discussion, and it is about time. How can we have a complete picture of crime, criminal justice, and criminology without the enlightened views and perspectives of arguably the most important group in those fields, the “criminals” and “deviants” themselves? Now, as a result of the frustration of ex-convict academic faculty, we finally have a unified voice for those individuals in the debate over crime and crime control. Criminologists from this perspective have special interest in: how crime is defined, specific solutions proposed for problems of crime and criminal justice, the plight of men and women labeled as criminals as a result of those decisions, the high rates of incarceration and overcrowding on our correctional institutions, a lack of meaningful programming for individuals under some form of custody, and impediments to successful re-entry of inmates into society.

“The convict scholars are able to do what many previous researchers could not; merge their past with their present and provide a provocative approach to the academic study of their field. The convict criminology perspective is also based on perceptions, experiences, and analytical ideas that originate with defendants and prisoners, and are then developed by critical scholars (Richards & Ross, 2003a, 2003b).”

This group has been working diligently in the advancements of prisoner rights and the development of criminological perspectives from the eyes of the “criminals”. They have put out many publications of great merit and scholastic achievement. I encourage all to visit the Convict Criminology Website and become more familiar with the group. I believe they are one of the most important voices in this field today!

LH