Originally published thirty years ago, Critique of the Legal Order remains highly relevant for the twenty-first century. Here Richard Quinney provides a critical look at the legal order in capitalist society. Using a traditional Marxist perspective, he argues that the legal order is not intended to reduce crime and suffering, but to maintain class differences and a social order that mainly benefits the ruling class. Quinney challenges modern criminologists to examine their own positions. As "ancillary agents of power," criminologists provide information that governing elites use to manipulate and control those who threaten the system. Quinney's original and thorough analysis of "crime control bureaucracies" and the class basis of such bureaucracies anticipates subsequent research and theorizing about the "crime control industry," a system that aims at social control of marginalized populations, rather than elimination of the social conditions that give rise to crime. He forcefully argues that technology applied to a "war against crime," together with academic scholarship, is used to help maintain social order to benefit a ruling class. Quinney also suggests alternatives. Anticipating the work of Noam Chomsky, he suggests we must first overcome a powerful media that provides a "general framework" that serves as the "boundary of expression." Chomsky calls this the manufacture of consent by providing necessary illusions. Quinney calls for a critical philosophy that enables us to transcend the current order and seek an egalitarian socialist order based upon true democratic principles. This core study for criminologists should interest those with a critical perspective on contemporary society.

This book traces the life course of Richard Quinney, one of the most cited authors in the social sciences and a key figure in the development of critical criminology in the 70s, 80s and 90s. It provides a look into his personal thoughts in becoming a 'radical' criminologist and situates it in his various experiences, questioning, and shifts in his journey through life. Richard has contributed to a profound paradigm shift in criminology, beginning with his book, The Social Reality of Crime (1970), but also to peacemaking criminology as well as peace studies. He has also written several books via an autoethnography approach and has presented a number of photograph presentations for which he has received awards. It traces his early development on the family farm in Wisconsin to his travels in higher academe. It gives a personal perspective in becoming not only a radical criminologist, an accomplished writer in auto-ethnography, visual sociology, and photography but also how his continuous questioning of the meaning of it all came to fruition with profound insights about what it is to be human. The book will be inspirational to not only seasoned veterans in criminology, but also to emerging scholars, to undergrads and grads, showing them the struggles that come in 'making it'.

Each stage has also incorporated changes that were taking place in Quinney's personal life. Ultimately, there is no separation bewteen life and theory, between witnessing and writing."--BOOK JACKET.

Criminology has traditionally been a military science, a science of war. "The criminal element" is the enemy. Repression and restraint are the primary tools of criminal justice, and criminologists study how to make those tools effective in the "war on crime." We are beginning to realize that this is a war against ourselves and one that we are losing. Our inability to make peace with crime and criminals is reflected in the paucity of our daily personal relations, where we live by domination and discipline, where forgiveness and mercy are seen as naive surrender to victimization. The essays in this volume propose peacemaking as an effective alternative to the "war" on crime. They range from studies of the intellectual roots of the peacemaking tradition to concrete examples of peacemaking in the community, with special attention to feminist peacemmaking traditions and women's experience.

This book traces the life course of Richard Quinney, one of the most cited authors in the social sciences and a key figure in the development of critical criminology in the 70s, 80s and 90s. It provides a look into his personal thoughts in becoming a 'radical' criminologist and situates it in his various experiences, questioning, and shifts in his journey through life. Richard has contributed to a profound paradigm shift in criminology, beginning with his book, The Social Reality of Crime (1970), but also to peacemaking criminology as well as peace studies. He has also written several books via an autoethnography approach and has presented a number of photograph presentations for which he has received awards. It traces his early development on the family farm in Wisconsin to his travels in higher academe. It gives a personal perspective in becoming not only a radical criminologist, an accomplished writer in auto-ethnography, visual sociology, and photography but also how his continuous questioning of the meaning of it all came to fruition with profound insights about what it is to be human. The book will be inspirational to not only seasoned veterans in criminology, but also to emerging scholars, to undergrads and grads, showing them the struggles that come in 'making it'.