Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the further chapters of this book. The book discusses the western criminology that works towards a new theoretical framework to offer an enhanced explanatory capability fit for changing the world. Its argument unfolds that if contemporary criminology intends to retain some sort of grip on a rapidly changing world, the concept of 'crime' is inadequate because in the neoliberal era, the general zemiological field of harm is also changing rapidly. These harms are opaque to the limited ethical and empirical apparatus that criminology uses to define, detect and explain what exists in the world. The argument focussed here is not simply the standard assault on the mainstream right-wing or centrist perspectives. The book also presents an accessible stripped-down synopsis of these arguments and the foundations of a new theoretical framework named ultra-realism. This framework helps criminology to produce more penetrative analyses by the effective left-wing political opposition.