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Radical Criminology

NCJ Number
87399
Journal
Insurgent Sociologist Volume: 10, V 11 Issue: 4, N 1 Dated: special issue (Summer/Fall 1981) Pages: complete issue
Author(s)
Anonymous
Date Published
1981
Length
128 pages
Annotation
A series of essays written from the perspectives of radical criminology focuses on social control under socialism, police specialization, prisons in a class society, defense preparation in a case that involved racism and police brutality, and capitalists' use of private police.
Abstract
The opening essay -- an historical analysis of the socialist revolutions in Cuba and China -- does not support the utopian forecasts of some radical criminologists, but the level of security and freedom in both countries is considered to exceed that of the prerevolutionary dictatorships. In the second paper, Taylorization -the process of breaking down police work into a number of simpler elements under the control of police administrators -- is viewed as a means of increasing productivity and efficiency, but it is also believed to increase worker job dissatisfaction and alienation from management. A case study of the New Mexico Penitentiary suggests that prison disturbances result from the changing structure of power relationships between inmates engendered by the change in the prison's internal control structure, and a longitudinal analysis of imprisonment measures, labor market changes, and control variables supports the hypothesis that penal practices fluctuate with changes in the late capitalist economy's need for labor. A defense perspective on a case that involved issues of police brutality and racism shows how a sociological survey helped the defense make a venue decision and juror selection that countered possible case prejudgments and prosecution advantages. An article on political surveillance examines policing by domestic spy networks, showing how these were established in the 1930's and 1940's and used in the 1960's to suppress democratic political dissent. Concluding essays are historical analyses of how private police were used by capitalists to protect their interest, notably in the rural and frontier United States and in the coal and iron industries. References accompany each essay. For individual entries, see NCJ 87400-04.