Cultural literacy and a multicultural inquiry into the study of crime and justice

Abstract

In the emerging post-melting pot era, increasing tension and antipathy between racial and ethnic groups are present. These tensions also are emerging in public and political discourse, and are expressed in such terms as Eurocentric, Afrocentric, cultural literacy, politically correct, and multiculturalism. In this essay I argue that a “cultural literacy” in criminology and criminal justice, such as those developed by Terence Thornberry (1990) and by Larry Siegel and Marvin Zalman (1991) tends both to reproduce itself and to impede the development of scientific inquiry in the discipline. This is the case because such cultural literacies cannot form constructs of crime and justice that are abstract enough to transcend the traditional definitions of crime and the administration of crime control. A preliminary African-American literacy is introduced here as one of the many potential multicultural literacies capable of reshaping and advancing the study of crime and justice.