Crime, Justice, and the Under‐Laborer: On the Criminology of the Shadow and the Search for Disciplinary Identity and Legitimacy

Abstract

This article proposes an alternative vision for what criminal justice can represent such that its interests in becoming a full-fledged academic discipline are advanced. Linked to philosophical inquiry (the under-laborer), emphasis is placed on explicating how insights derived from ontology, epistemology, aesthetics, and ethics underscore the field. Coupled with this more probing excursion is psychoanalytic reflexivity (the criminology of the shadow). The manner in which the philosophical lens informs criminal justice is delineated, and the logic of this shadow criminology is described. As dimensions of an inclusive organizing scheme, their potential for fostering integration in crime and justice studies consistent with the goals of disciplinary identity and legitimacy is explored. The implications of the proposed model-especially for charting a new direction in theory, research, policy, and pedagogy-are also highlighted.Keywords disciplinary identity; legitimacy; philosophy and the under-laborer; psychoanalysis and the criminological shadow; theory of criminal justice Bruce A. Arrigo, is Professor of Crime, Law, and Society within the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. He holds additional faculty appointments in the Psychology Department, the Public Policy Program, and the Center for Professional and Applied Ethics. Dr. Arrigo's research interests include: (1) law, psychology, and politics; (2) deviance and violence in society; and (3) critical social theory and philosophical criminology. He is a prolific scholar having (co)authored nearly 150 journal articles, chapters in books, and scholarly essays, as well as having (co)authored or (co)edited 25 academic volumes. Selected recent books in theoretical and philosophical criminology include

The assumption of rational choice theory in Alfred Adler's theory of crime: Unraveling and reconciling the contradiction in Adlerian theory through synthesis and critique

“…Consequently, the central question that criminology as a discipline must address first is to define the meaning of crime prior to its measurement (Ferrell, 2004). Otherwise, criminology as a discipline cannot become independent and assume an identity as a legitimate social scientific discipline (Arrigo, 2008;Kraska, 2006).…”