Postmodern criminology

Affirmative postmodern criminology has witnessed several perspectives. Some of the more salient include: chaos theory; discourse analysis, particularly psychoanalytic semiotics; catastrophe theory; edgework; and forms of constitutive criminology. This chapter discusses key concepts of each, followed by some applications that have taken place in postmodern criminology. Affirmative postmodern criminology provides critical challenges to the modernist framework. Affirmative postmodern criminology has witnessed several perspectives. Some of the more salient include: chaos theory; discourse analysis, particularly psychoanalytic semiotics; catastrophe theory; edgework; and forms of constitutive criminology. They have been applied to diverse areas. Modernist criminology privileges "background factors" – categories such as class, race, gender, education, age, environmental factors, and utilitarian dynamics rooted in structural conditions. Constitutive criminology is a holistic view that argues crime and crime control cannot be separated from various contexts within which it is co-produced.