The role utopianism has had in criminology is particularly apparent at two critical junctures. The first was in the establishment of the various research agendas which together comprise criminology, while the second can be seen in the periodic attempts to reject the premises of a particular theory and the subsequent construction of a theory that is totally opposite in every way. The impact of utopianism is also evident in two other characteristics of criminology: its lack of an accepted stock of theoretical or empirical knowledge or methods and its legendary, argumentative nature. The author discusses here some preliminary issues related to his theory: his claim that criminology exists as an identifiable discipline and his definition of utopia. 25 references