Critical Theory

CRITICAL THEORY GENERALLY refers to the social theory with Marxist roots, that questions tradition and the status quo, explores and analyzes the origins of social inequality in capitalist societies and advocate radical social change. In criminology, it is an approach to the study of crime, which locates the principal sources of crime in the structure of class inequality in society.

Drawing particularly on the work of Karl Marx and his collaborator Friedrich Engels, a primary tenet of critical theory of crime is that capitalism and economic inequality produce crimes. To explain white-collar and corporate crime, critical theorists argue that the problem is not that the individual persons who own and manage business organizations are immoral. Critical theory has adopted a structural explanation instead that focuses on ...