The emergence of critical criminology in Argentina’s law schools

Abstract

A discipline takes on the contours of its context. Therefore, the sociology of science asks in what context science occurs and what implications it has for scientific findings. Worldwide, criminology exists as an independent science linked to sociology or law. What determines the dependency or independency of criminology? In this article, through archival research, I explore the emergence of critical criminology in Argentina. My goal is to explain why it emerged among scholars and practitioners of law, and I propose five reasons for this. All these reasons have as a background the fact that law in Argentina is, at least it was in the 1970s and 80s when critical criminology emerged, more sensitive to cultural, geographical, and historical-critical (and generalist) developments than social and behavioural sciences.