ABSTRACT
Affirmativepostmoderncriminologyhasemergedinthe1990s asaparadigmnotonlyfordeconstructingoppressiveforms,but alsoforaffirmativelyreconstructingtheneworder.Whereasthe emergenceofpostmodernismisaccountedforinliterarytheory, criminologyhasbeenlessthanenthusiastic,evenhostile,toitscentralconcepts.1Hereweprovidesomeexamplesofalternative methodologiesindoingcriticalcriminology.Wefocusonchaos,catastrophe,andtopologytheory;theseapproachesarequalitative, althoughthequantitativeisnotdiscounted.Ratherthanprivileginglineareffectsandhomeostasis(order),postmodernanalysisis morelikelytoassumenonlineareffectsandfar-from-equilibrium conditions(orderlydisorder).Withalternativeconceptualtools,a
new discourse is implicated; the use of more conventional discourses often includes embedded assumptions and metanarratives (also see Arrigo, 1995a, 1995b). For possible applications we have chosen several studies that are especially relevant for postmodern criminology (Ferrell 1995; Katz 1988; Matza 1964, 1969; O'Malley and Mugford 1994).2
