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From ‘crime’ to social harm?

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Abstract

Debates around the relationships between criminology and social harm are long-standing. This article sets out some of the key features of current debates between, on the one hand, those who would retain a commitment to ‘crime’ and criminology and those, on the other hand who would abandon criminology for a social harm perspective. To this end, the article begins by highlighting several criticisms of criminology, criticisms raised in particular by a diverse group of critical criminologists over the past 30 to 40 years. While these are hardly new, the rehearsal of these is an important starting point for a discussion of the potential of the development of an alternative discipline. The paper then proposes a number of reasons why a disciplinary approach organised around a notion of social harm may prove to be more productive than has criminology hitherto: that is, may have the potential for greater theoretical coherence and imagination, and for more political progress.

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Notes

  1. We have set these arguments out at greater length in [21, 22].

  2. [43, 44], passim, and [27]: 6.

  3. [19]

  4. [24]

  5. On the UK, see [23]; for a discussion of similar issues as they apply to the US, see [39].

  6. [32]:77

  7. [24]

  8. [30]: 61.

  9. [35–38]

  10. [15, 16]

  11. [41]

  12. [40]

  13. [7]

  14. [30]: 67–70, original emphases.

  15. See [31]: 105–107, 118–122

  16. [6]

  17. [3]

  18. [7]

  19. See, for example, the recent Corsten Report on the experiences and effects of imprisoning women in the UK [10] – a report which concludes by calling for a radically different approach to dealing with female offenders.

  20. [34]

  21. [33]:1

  22. [26]

  23. [8]:11

  24. [24]

  25. [20]: x–xi

  26. Ibid.

  27. [30]: 61

  28. [9, 14, 17, 18; 23].

  29. See, for example, the contributions to [21].

  30. [1]:4

  31. http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/Global%20Competitiveness%20Report/index.htm

  32. http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/global/cpi

  33. [25]

  34. [11]

  35. [28]: 20–23.

  36. [13]

  37. See, for example [5, 32].

  38. For a useful recent review of this work, see [45],

  39. [12]

  40. [42]

  41. [29]

  42. [18]

  43. [4]: 118

  44. [2]

  45. [5]: 54, 62

  46. [30]

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Christina Pantazis and Dave Gordon, our co-editors of Beyond Criminology: Taking Harm Seriously, as well as the contributors to that text. We would also like to thank Anne Alvesalo, Joe Sim and Dave Whyte, who have also helped, variously, in our development of the ideas expressed in this paper.

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  1. School of Sociology, Social Policy & Social Work, Queens University, 6 College Park, University Road, Belfast, BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland, UK

    Paddy Hillyard & Steve Tombs

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  1. Paddy Hillyard
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Correspondence to Paddy Hillyard.

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Hillyard, P., Tombs, S. From ‘crime’ to social harm?. Crime Law Soc Change 48, 9–25 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-007-9079-z

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