Abstract
Critical criminology and radical constructivism are frequently regarded as an impossible pair—or, at least, as a rather schizophrenic one. This is so, notably, because radical constructivism rests on the (paradoxical) abandonment of what Jean-François Lyotard named méta-récits. It rests on the refusal to distinguish between the phenomenal and the symbolic, and thus implies the complete vanishing of the classical difference between ontology and epistemology. This would consequently deprive criminology (or, more generally, the social sciences) of any anchoring point enabling a critical utterance. The present contribution’s thesis is that, on the contrary, radical constructivism can catalyze critical criminology. Among the possible contributions of a radically constructivist sociology of criminalization, this paper focuses on: its call for a reworking of the concept of social control, which avoids problems related to its contemporary usage; its focus on power and force, in a way which avoids Foucaultian perspectives’ aporetic elements, and problematizes every instance of legitimized authoritarian practices.
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Notes
Numerous exemplifications of cultural criminologists pretending to have a ‘superior’, ‘truer’ or simply ‘more human’ access to crime’s “reality”—despite their usual suspicion towards the ontologization of crime—can be found in Cultural Criminology Unleashed (2004).
Of course, some uses of Luhmann’s sociology can be found in criminological work, notably in those of Alvaro Pires and Richard Dubé (e.g. Pires 2001; Pires and Cauchie 2007; Dubé 2007; Dubé and Cauchie 2007). Introductions to Luhmann’s grueling theory can be found, notably, in Moeller (2006), King and Thornhill (2005, 2006), Clam (1997, 2000, 2001a, b), Stichweh (2000) and Ertler (1999). See also King (2001) for a presentation of, and answers to, common, but ill-founded, critiques of the theory.
Clear linkages between social control and the dynamic processes through which Modernity is (re)produced can be found, notably, in Ross (1901), Mead (1925), Park and Burgess (1924), Elias (1939), Horkheimer (1944), Mills (1939, 1940), and Parsons (1951). Mead and Park were particularly targeted by criminologists advocating a restricted conception of social control, because their work was taken as being blind to “conflicts over norms” and to State apparatuses, and failing to problematize “the objectives of control” (Lowman et al. 1987:3). On the defence of a restricted concept of social control, see Quirion (2001), Pitts (1991), Horwitz (1990), Cohen (1985), Black (1984), Robert (1984), Cohen and Scull (1983), Gibbs (1982), Meier (1982).
Arbitrariness here only refers to the self-referentiality of meaning production (see the analytical, not phenomenological, decomposition of meaning in factual, temporal and social dimensions in Luhmann’s theory, e.g. 1995:75). For example, statements like ‘we should punish crime’, ‘incapacitation is (or should be) the single most important penological principle’, ‘imprisoning individuals for non violent criminal(ized) acts/conditions is inhumane’ all consist in an arbitrary reduction of the world’s complexity, since they are deprived of any ultimate, external, foundation. I will come back on this in addressing the issue of legitimacy.
Foucault himself distinguished three major phases in his work, the study of: the relationship between various “truth games” (“jeux de vérité”), the famous power/knowledge (through the study of disciplinary practices), and “truth games” as they are involved and mobilized in the “hermeneutic of the subject” (Foucault 1982b, 1984b:13). The ‘first’ Foucault, particularly in Naissance de la clinique, relied on a very negative (or juridical-like) conception of power that the ‘second’ heavily criticized (see also Foucault 1977).
This, of course, is just a way to rearticulate the traditional question of the social impact of legal versus non-legal norms. As Weber noted (Weber 1971:13), it is quite problematic to assume that conformity to what he called the “juridical order” derives from its ‘legitimate’ threats and violence, as the advocates of classic utilitarianism and contemporary rational choice posit.
The processes through which law (as a social system) de-paradoxifies (or de-tautologizes) its operations are thus central to a Luhmannian sociology of law. A classic example of de-paradoxification (because taken as a juridical artifact) is the ‘reasonable person’ standard.
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Acknowledgments
This article builds on a presentation given at the congress Le pénal aujourd’hui : pérennité ou mutations? I would like to thank Renée Zauberman for inviting me to speak at this congress, which was closed by a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the academic journal Déviance & Société. This journal has been, over the last three decades, the principal vehicle for the development of critical research and scholarly debates in the (relatively) small Francophone criminological realm. One might say that this journal has been one highly influential media in the very production of most critical criminologists in Belgium, France and in French-speaking enclaves of Canada. Sadly enough, a real dialogue between Francophone and Anglophone criminologies has yet to be established. I would also like to thank scholars who commented on various versions of this paper: Jean-François Cauchie, Gilles Chantraine, Richard Dubé, Ummni Khan, Michael Mopas, Augustine S. J. Park, George S. Rigakos, Dale Spencer and Kevin Walby.
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Carrier, N. Critical Criminology Meets Radical Constructivism. Crit Crim 19, 331–350 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-010-9129-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-010-9129-1