Beshara, Christopher --- "The Critical Criminology Companion, edited by Thalia Anthony and Chris Cunneen" [2009] ALRCRefJl 50; (2009) 94 Australian Law Reform Commission Reform Journal 71

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The Critical Criminology Companion

Edited by Thalia Anthony and Chris Cunneen

Reviewed by Christopher Beshara

$64.95

The ‘critical’ in this book’s title is not a buzzword unthinkingly added by the publisher as the manuscript went to press. Rather, it characterises a radical approach to the study of crime control and social policy advocated by this compilation’s manifold contributors. Whereas administrative criminologists at the coalface of criminal policy formulation are often insensitive to just how politicised and value-laden their vocation is, these self-styled ‘critical’ criminologists are anything but disengaged.

The editors’ stated intention is twofold: to showcase the intellectual ferment of critical and theoretically informed criminologists among cutting-edge academics in Australia and New Zealand, and to expose students and experts alike to compelling policy alternatives to run-of-the-mill criminology.

What, then, is critical criminology? For good reason, the editors of this compilation are loath to limit an inclusive fi eld of study by constructing an exclusionary defi nition. Nonetheless, it would be fair to say, as Robert van Krieken points out in his own chapter, that what sets ‘critical’ criminology apart from its garden-variety equivalent is a turn to social theory and its constituent discourses. This is something to which the Critical Criminology Companion certainly aspires.

Each of the 26 essays contained in this work is grouped under one of fi ve distinct themes: ‘Theories and Methodologies of Critical Criminology’, ‘Critical Theory in Action’, ‘Broadening Defi nitions of Crime and Criminology’, ‘Responses to Crime’, and ‘Future Directions in Critical Criminology’. As these broad thematic concerns indicate, the editors are conscious of the mutually reinforcing relationship between theory and practice. While intellectually driven, the Companion retains its relevance beyond the confi nes of the ivory tower.

Among other things, these essays grapple with gendered and racialised understandings of crime, the uncertain place of international criminal law in a politicised world order, the intractability of populist ‘law and order’ politics, the deleterious effects of excluding Aboriginal customary law from the mainstream criminal justice system, masculinised subcultures within law enforcement agencies, the potentialities (and limitations) of restorative justice, and the revivifi cation of class analysis in criminological discourse. Collectively, these essays are nothing short of an intellectual tour de force.

What makes this compilation truly unique, however, is its willingness to turn its critical gaze onto its own deep-seated assumptions. By virtue of this hypercritical approach, the contributors eschew the constraints of dogma and ideology in favour of open-ended inquiry and rigorous scholarship.

A few examples will suffi ce. In his broadbrush analysis of social theory as it applies to criminology, van Krieken suggests that critical criminologists might seriously consider as an object of critique not just the omnipresence of state oppression, but also the paucity of social control and government regulation in riskladen spheres of activity. In her re-evaluation of feminist criminologies, Kerry Carrington suggests that sexual assault prevention campaigns must move beyond simplistically typecasting all men as depraved perpetratorsin- waiting and all women as choiceless damsels in distress. On the international front, Mark Findlay argues that the legitimacy accorded to global institutions—too often considered a ‘good thing’ by progressives and internationalists—is marred by the overt politicisation of international criminal law, which in turn makes it practically impossible to keep global governance just. This is just a small selection of the many path-breaking and provocative insights to be found in this book.

Like all good works of critical theory, these essays are unapologetically erudite. At times, their well-considered use of jargon and specialist terminology can be overwhelming. While the editors of the Companion contend that newcomers to the fi eld of criminology have much to learn from the essays therein, this is a work whose insights can only be fully appreciated by criminologists with a sound grasp of their discipline’s core principles.

On the other hand, there is much to be said for exposing students to critical criminology at an early stage of their intellectual development, before the anodyne assumptions of traditional criminology have come to be taken for granted. As the editors suggest, aspiring students will benefi t from reading this stimulating work alongside an introductory text. The Companion’s editors and contributors are to be commended for their willingness to push beyond the boundaries of tried-but-not-so-true criminology. That their scholarship is self-avowedly radical and counter-discursive is unproblematic— indeed, the periphery has an uncanny habit of infl uencing the centre. When the next law and order auction rolls around, we would do well to take stock of their input.

Christopher Beshara, ALRC Intern