ABSTRACT
Constitutive criminology has a long history in that it draws on several well-established critical social theories, most notably symbolic interactionism, social constructionism, phenomenology, ethnomethodology, structural Marxism, poststructuralism, structuration theory, semiotics. Constitutive criminology was born of the application of these postmodernist concepts to critical criminology by a relatively small group of critical criminologists whose inner circle comprises Stuart Henry, Dragan Milovanovic, Gregg Barak, and Bruce Arrigo. Constitutive criminology is a theoretical perspective influenced by postmodernism that examines the discursive coproduction of crime by human agents in their interrelation with cultural products, social institutions, and the wider societal structure. Constitutive criminology incorporates and accepts postmodernists' anarchistic critique that knowledge is political, subjective, and hierarchical. Constitutive criminology takes the position that because crime is conceived of, made meaningful, and acted out through particular discursive forms, an important component in any policy for crime reduction is to change the ways of talking that facilitate its expression.
