ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the class, racism, gender and object of criminology debates that have been central to criminologies since the publication of The New Criminology and argues that, in their theoretical or political self-consciousness, many of the brand-name criminologies have been constrained by a globalism, a realism, a populism or a political correctness (of the times) that have been theoretically and/or politically limiting. The major concerns of feminists about criminology have been the absence of women from crime texts, the theoretical propriety (or not) of developing feminist theories of women's lawbreaking, the degree of correspondence between a theory and its empirical referent, and the political risks attendant upon campaigns for justice for women. A tendency towards theoreticism can be found in critiques that claim all criminological theory is tainted by its empirical referent. The realist-essentialist tendencies insist on tinkering with theories to make them reflect the 'truth' of a specified empirical referent.
