ABSTRACT
Sociology, which expanded significantly on university campuses at the time, was perhaps the principal site for reflecting, and reflecting on, the momentous movements for social change. Before long, though not without academic opposition, it was possible to talk of Marxist Sociology, Feminist Sociology/Women's Studies and African-American Studies or critical race studies or anti-racist or neocolonial perspectives as distinctive sociological or social-theoretical configurations in and outside the discipline. Theorizing aside, it may be said that the empirical motivation for the critical revisionism entailed by the political challenge posed by self-styled "radical sociology," when addressed to the subject of crime, came from observations. The popular/official picture of crime is one that supplies grist for the mill of theoretical explanation in terms of class, gender and race. The revolts were themselves spawned by and further fomented social movements that had their own long, if discontinuous, histories.
