ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the ways in which race, class and gender have been included within radical and critical criminology. The inclusion of race and gender along side class concerns was connected to the types of political, social and economic struggles in which radical theorists became involved—issues that directly involved race and gender bias in addition to class bias. The importance of race, class and gender to contemporary social, political and economic life cannot be denied nor overstated. Criminologists attempt to answer four general questions about crime and its control: motivations toward crime; opportunities for crime; bonds that prevent crime; official reactions towards crimes and criminals. Criminologists know even less about the ways in which race, class and gender intersect, and even less about how class, gender and race impact bonds, opportunities, motivations and reactions to crime. Race, class and gender taken as statuses or structures act as “codes”; repositories of behavioral cues, possibilities and choices.
