Crime and Harm 1

Although the concept of a "postmodern criminology" is a matter of some debate,  recent times two distinct criminological trends have become apparent:

First the reinvention of "conventional criminology", where the focus is on criminal forms of deviance and the objective is to control crime, in a number of ways - from situational crime prevention initiatives, through zero tolerance policing to policy initiatives based on "prison works".

Secondly, a reinterpretation of the concept of deviance to focus on ideas about social harm - a position sometimes associated with the notion of constitutive criminology, a form of criminology that, it is sometimes argued, represents a newer form of postmodern criminology.

To understand this latter form of criminology it's useful to look at how conventional criminology has been criticised for its over-identification with the interests of social control agencies and its uncritical acceptance of legal definitions of crime.