NCJ Number
128697
Date Published
1991
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This introduction to a series of criminological essays by members of the University of Toronto's Centre of Criminology explains the Centre's institutional approach to criminology and how this approach is exemplified in each of the essays.
Abstract
An institutional approach to criminology entails a conception of criminal law and justice as an ordering system that functions to allocate resources (e.g., by guaranteeing and protecting relationships and by intervening to enforce policies and programs); to regulate and resolve conflict (e.g., by providing principles and procedures for doing so); and to keep the peace (e.g., by establishing rules of behavior and enforcing violations with sanctions). In focusing on the institutional dimensions of criminal justice, the Centre's research has analyzed how crime, criminality, law and justice are constituted within major institutions, especially law, the polity, the economy, science, and culture. Within these spheres the mechanisms of criminal law and justice coordinate institutional activities and help to construct society's authority system. The essays presented by the Centre's members exemplify the institutional approach to criminology in the areas of crime, policing, and punishment; law reform and policy; and social hierarchies, crime, and justice.