Building on the shoulders of Bhaskar and Matthews: a critical realist criminology

Wilkinson, Matthew; Quraishi, Muzammil; Irfan, Lamia; Schneuwly Purdie, Mallory

Abstract

Building on the insights of the late Roy Bhaskar and the late Roger Matthews, as well as some recent developments in ultra-realist criminology, this article introduces and delineates some core intellectual contours of a Critical Realist Criminology (CRC) based on the principles of:

1. The ‘emergent,’ stratified ontology of crime and of the offender;

2. the full critical realist account of the dialectics of being and becoming, including the spiritual turn in critical realism, applied to processes of criminal justice and reform;

3. maximal inclusion of diverse theoretical research positions and the primacy of ontology in methodological selection;

4. a ‘serious’ critical relationship of criminologists with professionals, institutions and policy-makers of criminal justice.

These principles are directed at developing a criminology that ‘underlabours’ the recovery of human flourishing for the victims and perpetrators of crime and for society at large, including in-depth inquiry into what counts as crime and the purposes of incarceration.

Citation

Wilkinson, M., Quraishi, M., Irfan, L., & Schneuwly Purdie, M. (2022). Building on the shoulders of Bhaskar and Matthews: a critical realist criminology. Journal of Critical Realism, 21(2), 123-144. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2021.1992736

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Nov 17, 2021
• Publication Date: Mar 15, 2022
• Deposit Date: Nov 23, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 23, 2021
• Journal: Journal of Critical Realism
• Print ISSN: 1476-7430
• Electronic ISSN: 1572-5138
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 123-144
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2021.1992736
• Keywords: Philosophy
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2021.1992736
• Related Public URLs: https://tandfonline.com/toc/yjcr20/current