Critical criminology involves the central role of power and conflict in shaping criminal outcomes, the range of vested interests that influence crime, the need for a dialectical analysis of crime and social control, the crucial importance of the State and the State definitions of crime, and the necessity of devising a praxis that is not conditional on the imminent collapse of capitalist society. One article outlines the connections between law, State, and economy in Canadian society and emphasizes the analytic shift from consensus to conflict orientations in socio-legal research. Another explores the issues of ideology and State autonomy with regard to law and social control. The relationship between criminological research and government funding the pedagogical difficulties in communicating and inculcating a radical criminology perspective are highlighted. A feminist approach defines a review of recent Canadian studies on gender and justice, and the final essay argues for a more exocentric, comparative approach to critical criminology in Canada. 28 references. For related articles see NCJ 125888-125895.