Critical Realism, Crime and Criminology

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

This roundtable aims to foster dialogue about the emerging contribution of the philosophy of critical realism to research on crime, (in)security, and criminal justice. The roundtable will consist of short contributions from members of the Crime, Security and Justice Network (CSJN), that is part of the Critical Realism Network, followed by a wider discussion of the potential for critical realism to revitalise criminological research and explanatory accounts of crime. The CSJN consists of a range of academic and professional researchers, who recognise the value of using critical realist ideas in the philosophy of social science to understand and intervene in problems of crime, insecurity, and rival policy responses. In doing so, the Network draws upon the commitment of critical realism to explanation, interpretation, and description as complimentary aims of social scientific approaches to social problems.

The roundtable will explore the relevance of key critical realists ideas such as: the importance of producing knowledge that is practically adequate in informing interventions in social problems as well as promoting a better understanding of them; and, the realist belief in the possibility and desirability of criteria for judging between rival accounts of crimes and security challenges, of criminal, restorative and social concepts of justice, and of arguments about managing the risks of crime and insecurity.

Topics include:
- Criminology and chaotic concepts (Adam Edwards, Cardiff University, Wales, UK)
- The intersections of critical realism, phenomenology, and fraud (Jane Ngan, The University of Manchester, England, UK)
- Exploring the histories of empire: a geohistorical approach (Gordon Hughes, Cardiff University, Wales, UK)
- Critical realist informed researched on financial crime compliance (Korry Robert, The University of Manchester, England, UK)
- Elias, critical realism and the night-time economy (Rachel Swann, Cardiff University, Wales, UK)
- Corporate crime, (concrete conceptions of) causality, and critical realism (Nicholas Lord, The University of Manchester, England, UK)

Subtopic

• Topic 1: Perspectives on Crime and Criminal Behavior / Theoretical and Epistemological debates in Criminology (Crime, Science and Politics WG)

Chair

• Nicholas Lord, The University of Manchester, UK

Discussants

• Adam Michael Edwards, Cardiff University

• Jane Ngan, University of Manchester

• Gordon Hughes, Cardiff University

• Korry Robert, University of Manchester