THEORY AND IDEOLOGY IN MARXIST CRIMINOLOGY

Marxist criminology can be analyzed both as a theory of what is and as an ideology of what ought to be. theory must be examined by logic and empirical evidence. An ideology and its vision of the good society must be examined by comparison with other ideologies and real societies based on competing ideologies. Such comparisons would reveal that societies based on Marxist ideology have been unjust and repressive and do not represent a future for which criminologists should strive as Quinney urges them to do.