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Contribution and Limitations of Anglo-American Criminology to Understanding Crime in Central-Eastern Europe

NCJ Number
150832
Journal
European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Dated: (1994) Pages: 50-61
Author(s)
B Hebenton; J Spencer
Date Published
1994
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This examination of the contribution and limitations of Anglo-American criminology to understanding crime in postcommunist central-eastern European countries focuses on opportunities for criminology and opportunities for crime.
Abstract
The development and application of criminology in postcommunist central-eastern European countries should be influenced by the fact that illegal and illicit transactions were an integral part of social, economic, and political life in these countries before the revolutions of 1989. The level of collusion between the state bureaucracy and citizen in ignoring illegal activities resulted in such activities becoming quasi-legitimate, in that they had an integral role in the maintenance of social and economic order. In these countries, crime will be redefined, as will other areas of social, economic, and political life, within the discourse of market relationships. The sociopolitical and economic change in east-central Europe now provides an opportunity to encourage the development of a distinct criminology that is both capable of drawing fully upon European intellectual traditions and taking account of theoretical concerns. The emergence of two new criminological journals may act as a stimulus to the development of this specific European criminology and provide a location for dissemination of current ideas. Still, the preoccupation with Anglo-American criminology is present in Joutsen's (1993) discussion of the potential for the growth in organized crime in central and eastern Europe. He turns to mainstream American criminology in the form of routine activity theory as an explanatory framework. This emphasis on mafia-type criminal organizations has led to a neglect of the potential for entrepreneurial "organized" crime. Similarly, the role of the shadow economy and the continuities for state- bureaucratic personnel involvement in illicit economic entrepreneurial processes in post-1989 central Europe have been neglected. 41 references

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