Confessions of a recovering ‘administrative criminologist’: Jock Young, quantitative research and policy research

Abstract

This article examines two phases of Jock Young’s work: first, in the 1980s when he was using quantitative criminological techniques in support of his Left Realist agenda; and second, in 2011 when he was offering an exuberant critique of quantitative methods. I consider these two separate and contrasting phases of his work from the viewpoint of someone whom Jock would have seen as an ‘administrative criminologist’ in the 1980s and more recently as a ‘datasaur’. I offer some counterarguments in support of quantitative methods, on the one hand, and in harnessing these methods to policy research, on the other. My criticisms of his impact are not intended to detract from the overall value of his work, which was immense.