Radical Criminology

The current development in the field of criminology is radical criminology which has been influenced by Marxism and conflict theories. It makes a departure from the traditional criminology which has its focus on correctional institutions and personal pathologies of the criminal and concentrates on the view that the behaviours of the powerless in any society are more likely to be criminalised and this group is more likely to be arrested, convicted and harshly sentenced. It further believes that many acts which are more injurious than crime are tolerated as perfectly legal because they tend to be the behaviours which are carried out by the powerful group in the society.

Influenced by the maxist view, the propounders of radical criminology have advocated the view that human nature by itself is not criminal; it is the capitalism which makes people greedy, self-centred and exploitative. The laws are the tools of the owners of the means of production and are used to serve their interests in keeping their activities legal even if they are harmful, brutal or morally unacceptable.

Thus, there is differential enforcement of the criminal laws by the so called ‘power’ group. Quinney’s views on radical criminology are primarily based on the thesis that unequal economic situation which exists in a capitalistic society leads to inequality of power and political position.

The economically powerful are also politically powerful and this results in conflict of interests between the powerful and the powerless groups of society. Marxists, therefore, believed that criminology was basically a social creation.

The purpose of radical criminologists according to Gifford Robert is to show that various cultures which exist within a society are in conflict and the neglect of these conflicts leads to unfair consequences leading to violation of law and breach of public peace. The radical criminology is designed to highlight these problems.

The theory propounded by radical criminologists had its impact on criminological developments as they raised questions of great social relevance. But they have little effect on penal policy, particularly of socialist countries.

In the Indian context, as rightly pointed out by Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, “radical humanism and progressive penology must gravitate towards the processes which heal and humanise, restore and socialise and reconcile judicial punishment with dignity of personhood”. Continuing further he observed, every saint has a past and every sinner a future.

And the technology of rehabilitation is the key to the manifestation of the divinity already in man.” According to him, “the cultural roots of India, with Valmiki the greatest poet with a robber past and such instances of conversion from criminality to nobility fully corroborate with the correctional philosophy advocated by radical penologists.”