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3 Key Differences between Orthodox and Critical Criminologies

Satisfactory Essays

Chapter 1: What are 3 key differences between orthodox and critical criminologies? Use examples of readings that reflect both criminologies to illustrate your response.

Orthodox criminology refers to the how criminologists accept the states ideas of crime without thinking of power relations. This thinking is shared by everyone and becomes a universal idea and these ideas are in the interests of everyone. However, certain groups of individuals are targeted and blamed for crimes based on their class, race, gender, sexuality and more. The theory of Critical criminology as defined in Primer in Radical Criminology is defined as “a way of doing criminology that frames the problem of crime in terms of the sociological forces of class, race, gender, culture, and history.”(1) In other words it focuses on challenging the state on their traditional, “normal” views of crime by looking at other factors. Three differences between critical and orthodox criminologists are the following. The first difference is that critical criminologists seek to find the root of what is behind the crime problem. (14) Rather than saying that the homicide was committed because he was an African American male who is poor (orthodox criminology), critical criminologists look at a deeper sociological explanation, like the community he grew up in has high rates for violence. A second difference is that radical criminologists understand that there is no fixed definition of crime and that there is more than one

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