Ruggiero - Power and Crime

Power and Crime advances the novel argument that the grey area between the licit and illicit the legal and illegal the deviant and the criminal provides a haven of serendipitous, creative and diffuse possibilities linking crime with power. It argues boldly that criminologys monopoly as a discipline to explain this phenomenon is less well deserved than most in it think. Insights from social theory, economics, politics, ethics and law furnish criminology with the analytical prospects for unpacking that grey area, rendering it visible. The prose is as persuasive as it is beautifully crafted, drawing upon disparate sources and disciplines rarely read together. The narrative power of this method illustrates why Vincenzo Ruggiero is one of the worlds leading scholars, sporting an impressive intellectual command over a wide terrain of the social sciences. This book is essential reading for a wide range of scholars and students across the social sciences.

Professor Kerry Carrington, Head of School of Justice, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

Ruggieros book provides an extremely important, comprehensive interpretation of a muchneglected subject. He moves beyond traditional criminological explanations regarding power and crime, and crimes of the powerful, in order to provide a unique and muchneeded analysis of the causes and effects of these processes. Ruggieros approach will interest students and scholars of criminology/criminal justice, sociology, and political science.

Jeffrey Ian Ross, Ph.D., Professor, University of Baltimore, USA

A penetrating, passionate and profound critical analysis of the intimate interrelations of crime and power. Whilst the everyday criminal justice process and the sadistic scapegoating of the popular media continue to demonise the deviance of the powerless, in the wake of the financial crisis and proliferating elite scandals this smokescreen is ever harder to maintain. Ruggiero marshals his considerable learning in many fields philosophy, social and political theory, economics, literature, as well as conventional criminology to demonstrate that contrary to the obfuscations of official statistics and the mass media, crime in the broadest sense is the twin of power. The book is an impressive illumination of vital issues, from one of the most sophisticated and erudite contemporary criminological theorists.

Robert Reiner, Emeritus Professor of Criminology, Law Department, London School of Economics, UK

POWER AND CRIME

This book provides an analysis of the two concepts of power and crime and posits that criminologists can learn more about these concepts by incorporating ideas from disciplines outside of criminology. Although arguably a rendezvous discipline, Vincenzo Ruggiero argues that criminology can gain much insight from other fields such as the political sciences, ethics, social theory, critical legal studies, economic theory and classical literature.

In this book Ruggiero offers an authoritative synthesis of a range of intellectual conceptions of crime and power, drawing on the works and theories of classical as well as contemporary thinkers in the above fields of knowledge, arguing that criminology can humbly renounce claims to intellectual independence, and adopt notions and perspectives from other disciplines.

The theories presented locate the crimes of the powerful in different disciplinary contexts, and make the book essential reading for academics and students involved in the study of criminology, sociology, law, politics and philosophy.

Vincenzo Ruggiero is Professor of Sociology at Middlesex University in London. He has conducted research on behalf of many national and international agencies, including the Economic and Social Research Council, the European Commission and the United Nations. He has published extensively on illicit economies, corporate crime and corruption, penal systems, social movements, fiction and crime. His latest book is The Crimes of the Economy (2013).

NEW DIRECTIONS IN CRITICAL CRIMINOLOGY

Edited by Walter S. DeKeseredy, West Virginia University, USA

This series presents new cutting-edge critical criminological empirical, theoretical, and policy work on a broad range of social problems, including drug policy, rural crime and social control, policing and the media, ecocide, intersectionality, and the gendered nature of crime. It aims to highlight the most up-to-date authoritative essays written by new and established scholars in the field. Rather than offering a survey of the literature, each book takes a strong position on topics of major concern to those interested in seeking new ways of thinking critically about crime.

1. Contemporary Drug Policy

Henry Brownstein

2. The Treadmill of Crime

Political economy and green criminology

Paul B. Stretesky, Michael A. Long and Michael J. Lynch

3. Rural Criminology

Walter S. DeKeseredy and Joseph F. Donnermeyer

4. Policing and Media

Public relations, simulations and communications

Murray Lee and Alyce McGovern

5. Green Cultural Criminology

Constructions of environmental harm, consumerism and resistance to ecocide

Avi Brisman and Nigel South

6. Crimes of Globalization

Dawn L. Rothe and David O. Friedrichs

7. Contradictions of Terrorism

Security, risk and resilience

Sandra Walklate and Gabe Mythen

8. Feminism and Global Justice

Kerry Carrington

9. Power and Crime

Vincenzo Ruggiero

POWER AND CRIME

Vincenzo Ruggiero

First published 2015

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2015 Vincenzo Ruggiero

The right of Vincenzo Ruggiero to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ruggiero, Vincenzo.

Power and crime / Vincenzo Ruggiero.

pages cm. -- (New directions in critical criminology.)

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-138-79237-1 (hardback) -- ISBN

978-1-138-79238-8 (pbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-315-76215-9 (ebook)

1. Crime--Sociological aspects. 2. Power (Social sciences)

3. Critical criminology. I. Title.

HV6025.R84 2015

364.01--dc23

2014038524

ISBN: 978-1-138-79237-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-79238-8 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-76215-9 (ebk)

I am not sure whether this book fits into the series the publishers designate as New Directions in Critical Criminology, for the simple reason that the directions it follows are far from new. The book examines the relationship between power and crime (and/or the crimes of the powerful) from a number of perspectives. A canonical initial chapter, of course, is devoted to the contribution which criminology, critical or not, has made to the analysis of the subject matter. We cannot exempt ourselves from the obligation we make imperative to our students: an acceptable review of the literature is likely to result in a better grade. But, after paying respect to the discipline, one may feel authorized to undertake an excursion into other fields of inquiry, where perhaps the notions and ideas elaborated in the criminological arena find a different theoretical context which invalidates, corrects, corroborates or strengthens them. Such an exercise may convince purists that criminology does not need the support or the refutation of other areas of knowledge, as its logic, method and understandings are independently cast in its own specialist vantage point. Purists, for example, may rejoice when faced with what they see as the success experienced by criminology over the past decades: students apply for degrees in droves, new journals are founded and a hail of books hits the field every year. This apparent success, however, may also be a consequence of the growing belief that technical, administrative, environmental, architectural or policing strategies are the only ones capable of responding to crimes. The success of criminology, in this sense, may be bad rather than good news, a supplementary reason to move away from it.