ABSTRACT
Witnesses in one way or another to the joys and the sorrows of being human in a particular time and place. Criminologists, especially, are in a position to observe the human conditions and sufferings of their times. They have devoted much of their lives to observing these conditions and sufferings. What was defined as crime was a product of the economic and political life of the country. Criminal laws were constructed to protect special interests and to maintain a specific social and moral order. This understanding of law and order was evident in the events of the time: the civil rights movement for racial equality, the protests against the war in Vietnam, and the revolts within universities. Everything criminologists do is grounded in a moral philosophy. Whatever they think and do, criminology is the advancement of one moral philosophy or another.
