Contesting Crime Science by James C. Oleson, Ronald Kramer

Contesting Crime Science Our Misplaced Faith in Crime Prevention Technology

by James C. Oleson (Author), Ronald Kramer (Author)
January 2022
First Edition
Hardcover
$85.00, £66.00 Paperback
$29.95, £24.00 eBook
$29.95, £24.00
Title Details

Rights: Available worldwide
Pages: 270
ISBN: 9780520299580
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 10 b/w illustrations

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About the Book About the Author Reviews Table of Contents Related Books

About the Book

In this eye-opening critique, Ronald Kramer and James C. Oleson interrogate the promises of crime science and target our misplaced faith in technology as the solution to criminality. This book deconstructs crime science's most prominent manifestations—biological, actuarial, security, and environmental sciences. Rather than holding the technological keys to crime's resolution, crime sciences inscribe criminality on particular bodies and constitute a primary resource for the conceptualization of crime that many societies take for granted. Crime science may strive to reduce crime, but in doing so, it reproduces power asymmetries, creates profit motives, undermines important legal concepts, instantiates questionable practices, and forces open new vistas of deviant activity.

About the Author

Ronald Kramer is Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Auckland. His previous books include The Rise of Legal Graffiti Writing in New York and Beyond and Culture, Crime and Punishment.

James C. Oleson is Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Auckland. His previous books include Criminal Genius: A Portrait of High-IQ Offenders and Fifty Years of Causes of Delinquency: The Criminology of Travis Hirschi.

Reviews

"A compelling and original critique of our newest form of criminological science ideology."—Jonathan Simon, author of Governing through Crime

"A most welcome disruption of the incantations of crime science! Kramer and Oleson show how contemporary investments in suppressive technologies are ill-founded and highly selective in the forms of harm they aim to neutralize. A passionate engagement with the injustices nurtured by technological crime control fantasies."—Nicolas Carrier, Carleton University

Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

  Introduction
1. A Brief Sketch of Crime Science and Its Limits

2. Biological Crime Science
  Identification and Biosocial Criminology

3. Actuarial Science
  Crime Control as a Risky Business

4. Security Science
  Cartographies of Crime, States of Exception,
  and the Twilight of Liberty

5. Environmental Crime Science
  Missing the Forest for the Acronyms

  Conclusion

Notes
Bibliography
Index