The power of oppression: Understanding the history of criminology as a science of oppression

Abstract

Following, or perhaps even being swept away by the propositions and suppositions of science, criminologists have written a rather sanitized, carefree history of the origins of their discipline. This discipline has much to hide, however, and criminologists' strict adherence to principles and claims of ‘objectivity’ and ‘neutrality’ have helped hide the unspoken task that is criminology from view. There is a need to excavate the hidden history of criminology from the basement of scientific criminology. This excavation requires the use of tools sensitive to oppression and conflict. Using such tools to recover, rewrite and explain the history of criminology, I have argued that criminology should be (a) interpreted as one of the many ‘sciences of oppression’ that (b) emerged following the Enlightenment (c) whose purpose was to help legitimize and place into practice principles that justified the oppression of the dangerous classes, (d) which had emerged as the primary threat to the ‘rational’ societies based upon capitalist social, economic and political relations. I suspect that this will not be a popular conclusion.