Critical criminology in the United States: the Berkeley School and theoretical trajectories

Abstract

The 1960s produced a crisis of order and authority unknown in the United States since the Civil War (Chatfield, 1990). Almost 35 years have passed, yet the US government and mass media still blame this crisis on the ‘usual suspects’, the political dissidents sired by the 1960s, rather than the ‘defenders of order’ who fought long-overdue demands for equality by resorting to political repression, police brutality and war crimes to serve corporate interests and imperial aims.