ABSTRACT
The past few chapters discussed the progression from the Italian School in the late 1800s to the Chicago School in the early 1900s through learning theories and strain theories. It is important to be cognizant of a parallel set of theories that originated in the early 1900s which continue to reverberate through and inform many theories today. Critical criminology (which will be discussed along with labeling theory in this chapter) views society in conflict as opposed to in consensus. In fact, a segment of critical criminology 79has been named “conflict criminology.” While there are different sects of critical criminology, and we will discuss a handful of the most prominent ones in this chapter, they have a few main themes that permeate them all to some degree. That is: (1) individuals and groups in society are in conflict; (2) crime is defined and punished mainly by the elite in society; (3) issues pertaining to the underclass such as environmental rights, LGBTQ rights, gaps in wages, and corporate corruption are ignored by the elite. The elite, because they define and punish crime, have the power to label individuals as criminals and treat them as “bad” people.
