Future Directions in Criminology

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Future Directions in Criminology

• you can never plan the future by the past
  Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

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Introduction

• Criminologys attempt to bridge theory and
  practice
• Post-positivism and post-modernism, and the
  discipline in a state of flux
• ? Can we merge criminal justice and criminology
• Continuing challenge of being relative and
  evolutive

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• Frame of Reference
• Ultimate objective controlology
• Utilitarian principles
• FOUR approaches
• conservative
• Liberal
• Radical
• Integrated and interdisciplinary

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• Conservative approach
• Social control over individual freedoms,
  policing, just deserts, focus on conventional
  crime
• ? Not humanistic
• Greater emphasis in political and power-based
  issues
• Can law and order control crime?

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• Liberal approach
• Crime the product of social and economic
  circumstances, lack of opportunities, emphasize
  treatment and rehabilitation
• Although popular in recent years only marginally
  successful
• Radical approach
• Reliance on unofficial sources, role of media and
  competing interest groups, power of capitalism,
  shift from offender to system
• Short on solutions but helps to draw attention to
  broader issues

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• Interdisciplinary
• Crime a product of human behaviour individual
  and his/her environment, soft-determinism,
• Attempt to reconcile differences between C, L,
  and R approaches
• Bridge current fragmentation
• BUT growing pains
• Can we move from legalistic to humanistic-based
  discipline?

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Criminology and Prediction

• The price of prediction risky
• Complexity of human behaviour
• ? Need for fundamental paradigm
• And theoretical shifts
• Can an integrated and interdisciplinary offer a
  clearer direction?

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Comparative Criminology

• Practicalities being overcome
• Advances in technology and methodology
• Fattah and our provincial attitudes slow to
  fade
• Transnational crimes and price of globalization
• Move beyond descriptive to a theoretical framework

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• Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of
  Juvenile Justice and Interpol examples of
  international co-operation
• Justification
• Experience of others
• Broaden our understanding and
• International co-operation to common concerns
• Will comparative criminology play a primary role
  in the future?

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The Knowledge Explosion

• An expansive discipline
• criminological enterprise
• Number of disciplines with
• vested interest growing
• Growing number of theories
• Number of textbooks (CDN) and journals
• Relative soundness of the discipline

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• The disciplines growth has NOT been matched by
  a decrease in crime rates!
• Is there a need for a paradigm shift?
• Causes of crime and criminality linked to
  multicausalityintegrated and interdisciplinary
• The Future of Crime
• Automobiles vs. credit cards and the role of
  technology and opportunity for new crimes
• E.g. debit cards and crime wave

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• Possible future trends.
• Computer based crimes
• International sex trade, organ trade, smuggling
  of illegal foreigners
• Transnationally based organized crime
• Transnational corporate crime
• International terrorism, money laundering,
• Will our current theories suffice to explain the
  new trends/

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Social Control Prevention or Punishment

• Crime costs up victim expenses up and
  incarceration up need for cost-effective
  strategies
• Figure 14-1 what works
• Communities community-based mentoring
• Family-based prevention early infant
  pre-school programs
• School-based programs innovative programs

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• Policing presence at hot spots
• CJS rehabilitation
• Importance of multiple risk factors
• Developmental pathways
• Opportunity reduction and social development
• Primary vs. secondary vs. tertiary prevention
• Bridging theory and practice e.g., shaming,
  restorative justice, etc.

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Criminology and Criminal Law

• Definition of crime dependent on its legal
  definition
• How did criminal law evolve and how will it
  evolve?
• Criminal law minimal impact on curbing crime
• Does the law inflate crime statistics?
• We need to rethink the role of law in crime
  prevention

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Expanding the Scope of Criminology

• Role of science and technology vs. the role of
  criminal law
• Expanding opportunities
• Crime The Elusive Enigma
• Crime waves mental filters through which social
  issues are filtered
• Must learn to discern myths from reality

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• Restorative Justice
• An answer to punishment?
• Shift from moral to social responsibility
  respect ALL parties
• An old concept in new attire!? Will it work this
  time?
• SUMMARY
• the longing for love, the search for knowledge,
  and the unbearable pity for the suffering of
  mankind, and search for spiritual growth.
• Constructive social policy with a global social
  context

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the gauntlet before you