Crime! What is it good for?

• In Event: Abolitionist Theorizing

Abstract

Critical criminologists have long critiqued the mainstream’s acceptance of state definitions of crime, arguing that it both minimizes societal harm and restricts the discipline’s scope of inquiry. The hegemonic definition of crime is divorced from the generation of harm in our society and it instead targets behaviors associated with race, class, gender, sexuality, and (dis)ability. Dating back to colonization and slavery, crime, similar to other concepts, has been deployed as propaganda to construct and reinforce an anti-Black consciousness. Crime is part of the broader tools of narrative warfare used by the state to legitimize the racist criminal legal system. In outlining this history and the deployment of crime as narrative warfare, we problematize the use of the concept of “crime” in everyday language and argue that the term is obsolete. This, we argue, creates new implications for criminology, critiquing the abstract goal of reducing crime, which obfuscates the casual cruelty of the criminal legal system and capitalism.

Authors

• Brian Pitman, Lander University

• Ryan Phillips, Marshall University

• Stephen T. Young, Marshall University