David O. Friedrichs

The Legitimacy Crisis in the United States: A Conceptual Analysis

A “legitimacy crisis” is widely perceived to exist on the basis of polls of public attitudes reflecting a precipitous decline in confidence in societal leadership, increasing manifestations of illegal, antisocial and repressive behavior or policies, and the demonstrable structural failures of the state to respond to fundamental human needs. Some attention is given to the fact that there are different types of legitimacy crises, that delegitimation may focus upon various dimensions of the legal order, and that a legitimacy crisis is ultimately a relative state of affairs. Insofar as broad causes of a legitimacy crisis may be identified, it has been associated with the attributes of a modern mass society, the specifically capitalist nature of some contemporary societies, and the impact of special events and circumstances such as the Vietnam War and Watergate. A conceptualization of a legitimacy crisis, with perceptual, behavioral and structural dimensions, has been provided and may serve as a point of departure for further research, analysis and political speculation.

The most-cited scholars and works in critical criminology

Previous studies that reported the most-cited scholars and works in criminology and criminal justice journals and textbooks neglected the contributions of critical criminologists to crime and justice scholarship. This paper extends citation analysis to the study of critical criminology. Through an examination of 18 books published from 1980 to 1997 and three journals published from 1991 to 1995, we list the 50 most-cited scholars in critical criminology, the 50 most-cited critical criminologists, and the 25 most-cited works. The most-cited scholars and works in critical criminology are compared to similar lists from mainstream criminology. The paper concludes with some thoughts about the importance of citation analysis in critical criminology.

White-collar crime in the criminal justice curriculum

Recognition of the significance of white-collar crime has grown substantially in recent years, but this growth has not been reflected adequately in the field of criminal justice or in the criminal justice curriculum. Through a content analysis of criminal justice and criminology textbooks and program course offerings the authors demonstrate the relative neglect of white-collar crime, and especially its marginal position in the criminal justice curriculum. Some hypothetical reasons for this relative neglect are explored. An argument is made on both theoretical and pragmatic grounds for more sustained and more systematic integration of white-collar crime into the criminal justice curriculum.

Enron Et Al.: Paradigmatic White Collar Crime Cases for the New Century

The Enron et al. cases (i.e., the series of “corporate scandal” cases emerging in 2001–2002, beginning with Enron, and including such cases as WorldCom, Global Crossing, Adelphia, and Tyco) are the first major American white collar crime cases of the new century. This article identifies some of the key attributes of these cases. The Enron et al. cases can only be understood by applying criminological theory on several different levels; structural, organizational, dramaturgic and individualistic dimensions are applied to the Enron case in particular. The Enron et al. cases must also be understood in the context of an emerging postmodern society. The specific role of criminologists in explaining and responding to these paradigmatic new white collar crime cases is addressed. The article ends with some conjectures on the potential outcomes of the Enron et al. cases.

Crimes of Globalization

Preface 1. Crimes of Globalization and the Criminological Enterprise 2. What are Crimes of Globalization? 3. Some Current Cases of Crimes of Globalization 4. Towards an Integrated Theory of Crimes of Globalization 5. Crimes of Globalization and the Global Justice Movement.

White-Collar Crime in a Postmodern, Globalized World

We live in a world of boundaries. They include boundaries between academic disciplines and within disciplines, boundaries between areas of specialization. We live in a world of temporal boundaries, where it is common to differentiate between past, present, and future.We live in aworld of geographical boundaries between communities, states, and nations. The erosion of boundaries in all of these realms, or the reconfiguration of such boundaries, is one of the guiding themes of this chapter. Developments pertaining to white-collar crime and its control bring this theme into especially sharp relief.

The problem of reconciling divergent perspectives on urban crime: Personal experience, social ideology and scholarly research

AbstractThe author examines influences of his personal experience with crime, his ideology, and his theoretical knowledge on his approach to the study of crime. Personal experience led to observations that (a) responses to crime are often “gut-level” rather than rational, (b) both street crime and the criminal justice system are characterized by incompetence, and (c) the retributive impulse must be considered in the study of crime. The radical ideology of the author led to the conclusion that crime is linked with the structure of the economic system. Finally, the authors scholarly knowledge led to recognition of the importance of the causality/meaning and determinism/voluntarism debates for the study of crime and for policy planning. He concludes that one must recognize the importance of all three sources of ones understanding of crime in order to engage in criminological research. “...the thing is to find a truth which is true for me...” S. KierkegaardJournals (8/1/1835)

Crime, deviance and criminal justice: In search of a radical humanistic perspective

Being among those basically quite dissatisfied with the framework, assumptions and biases of conventional mainstream criminology I was much attracted to the thought of radical criminologists which has emerged over the past ten years. At the same time certain features of this neo-Marxist analysis have been unpalatable or unacceptable to me, and unconvincing as well, and I have been unwilling to abandon some of the observations and values of liberal humanistic thought. This article reflects a personal exploration of the relationship between and synthetic potential of humanist sociology and Marxist humanism in terms of the emergence of a humanistic criminology. It makes no pretense to being more than a preliminary examination; much work remains to be done if a viable, effective radical humanistic criminology is to become a potent intellectual and moral force.

The concept of legitimation and the legal order: A response to Hyde's critique

The concept of legitimation has been widely invoked in the study of law, justice, and illegality. Law professor Alan Hyde has formulated a thorough and provocative critique of the use of this concept, especially in the legal realm. He calls for the abandonment of the concept in favor of alternative concepts, such as rational self-interest; he suggests that claims regarding the existence of legitimacy do not lend themselves to empirical verification. The present paper systematically examines Hydes principal themes, and raises some objections to them. The enduring relevance of the concept of legitimation for understanding legal phenomena is brought out; rather than abandoning this concept one should more clearly delineate between the different uses of it. The concept of legitimation provides a unifying point for the consideration of normative and empirical dimensions of legal order.

Crime wars and peacemaking criminology

In the mid‐1990s, the long‐standing “war on crime” has acquired a new momentum. A major public opinion poll in January 1994 showed 37 percent of the respondents believing that crime is the nations premier problem; this is twice as high as it had been only five months earlier, and four times the figure for January 1993 (USA Today, January 25, 1994). President Clinton, in his first State of the Union address in 1994, highlighted the crime problem and endorsed tough measures, including more police hiring and mandatory life imprisonment for those convicted of a third violent offense. Clinton reiterated his support for strong gun control and a community policing model. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives was considering a Senate bill calling for longer sentences, more prison funding, and more death penalty offenses. Governors across the nation were calling for more incapacitation and punishment for both adult and juvenile criminals.