Abstract
Variable conceptions of positivism exist, although at the heart of the notion is the assumption of the scientific ideal of ‘objectivity’ as it pertains to the individual and society. Despite much debate and criticism of positivism in criminology, contemporary modes of positivism continue to inform criminological research. However, this more recent positivism is not necessarily the crude, overt positivism associated with the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century modes, but a more sophisticated and insidious brand - ‘covert positivism’. Most recently, in the domains of forensic genetics, objective research and empirical methods are being used subtly to make claims about the nature of criminal individuals and populations. These forensic domains utilise modern-day biological and psychological scientific procedures to assess, predict and make conclusions relating to ‘criminals, deviants, and pathologicals’ at genetic and neuronal levels. Critiques of these approaches are presented, as these scientific interventions are paralleled with historical modes of positivism.
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Highlights
Science is at the heart of the positivist approach
Contemporary positivism does not necessarily operate in the name of positivism, yet continues to shape how we produce knowledge, research and investigate the world (Kincheloe and Tobin 2009: 514). As it relates to criminology, present and emerging forensic practices utilise covert positivist methods to construct new modes of biological determinism, to achieve ‘scientific truth’ with respect to their objects of study: genes and brains
An analysis and critique of these theories and techniques are presented as they relate to and support modes of increasingly clandestine biological and psychological positivism in criminological settings. As it applies to genetics more broadly, and familial DNA positivism operates covertly in the assumptions made about criminality as they are applied to genetics, both at the level of scientific analysis and the database searches conducted
Summary
Science is at the heart of the positivist approach. As the definition of science becomes increasingly provisional with time, so does the concept and practice of positivism. Contemporary positivism does not necessarily operate in the name of positivism, yet continues to shape how we produce knowledge, research and investigate the world (Kincheloe and Tobin 2009: 514). As it relates to criminology, present and emerging forensic practices utilise covert positivist methods to construct new modes of biological determinism, to achieve ‘scientific truth’ with respect to their objects of study: genes and brains. The following essay takes two forensic paradigms to exemplify modes of contemporary positivism as they emerge, at times, rather imperceptibly in line with scientific methods, have consequent effects on the social world, as well as critiques of such techniques. To begin is an outline of historical, contemporary and criminological positivism, and the interchange between these three, as they relate to and sustain scientific ideals
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