ABSTRACT
After more than three decades, the works of Richard Quinney continue to be influential. Critique of Legal Order represented a significant shift toward a Marxist view of crime and the legal order. Quinney's overall critique of capitalism and criminology's role in crime control is still relevant and provides some guidelines for the future. One of the leading points Quinney makes is that crime control in modern capitalist societies is not so much aimed at reducing crime and suffering as it is at preserving the established order and controlling the "dangerous classes", the "rabble" or the "surplus population". Critique of Legal Order was perhaps a reflection of someone who had become disenchanted with American capitalism. As a humanist, Quinney was deeply and genuinely disturbed by what he saw around him. Quinney notes sarcastically that a good deal of funding goes toward the development of criminal justice programs in colleges and universities.
