A Working Class Critique of Criminological Theory

The absence of a thoroughly developed, working class critique of criminological theory has resulted in bias in the creation of knowledge regarding crime and deviance. Much as feminist writings illuminated the unique problems related to gender, and works by those discussing racial and ethnic minorities highlighted the special concerns related to race and ethnicity, a working class perspective can expose the particular issues having to do with class. A brief discussion will be presented dealing with the portrayal of working class people in the media, and the complicity of academia in allowing working class stereotypes to persist. A sketch of a working class perspective will then be developed, and it will be used to critique fourteen of the major criminological theories today in terms of their relative sensitivities and considerations of the class factor in crime and justice issues. The final section places each of the fourteen theories on a continuum from those that do not consider the working class experience at all to those that give the working class experience full consideration. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.