History as Activism: Critical Uses of History at the Berkeley School of Criminology in the 1970s

Catello, Roberto (2023) History as Activism: Critical Uses of History at the Berkeley School of Criminology in the 1970s. Justice, Power and Resistance. ISSN 2635-2338

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Abstract

Works of historical criminology do not have to be disinterested studies of past crime-related phenomena. Instead, they can represent practical attempts to intervene in the politics of crime and justice in the present. This article takes this claim to a critical conclusion; historical research in criminology can function as a weapon in contemporary political struggles and a way of injecting radical politics into criminological studies. To demonstrate this point, the article scrutinises the ways in which early critical criminologists in the US engaged in historical research as a way of doing politics and activism. To such criminologists, doing historical research was a form of praxis. Focusing on the works produced at the Berkeley School of Criminology in the 1970s, the article shows that the nurture of a historical interest was deemed to be a vital step in the development of a critical paradigm within American criminology.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information and Comments:	© Roberto Catello, 2023. The definitive, peer reviewed and edited version of this article is published in Justice, Power and Resistance, available from: https://doi.org/10.1332/YDXV1897
Keywords:	activism; Berkeley School of Criminology; critical criminology; historical criminology; history of criminology
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Business, Law and Criminology > School of Law and Criminology
Depositing User:	Roberto Catello
Date Deposited:	28 Feb 2023 11:37
Last Modified:	28 Feb 2023 11:37
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/3773

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