Critical Criminology and Possibility in the Neo-liberal Ethos

Abstract

This article calls for a criminology of possibility. It highlights the epistemological and ontological conditions of contemporary criminological practice, which, we suggest, has bifurcated academic praxis into “administrative complicity” and “self-inflicted irrelevance.” We argue for an art of critique that destabilizes seemingly well-anchored social relations. This critical reflexivity does not pander to established ontology or rely upon foundational judgements. We encourage critical criminologists not to multiply judgements about existing policy, programmes, institutions, or societal structures but to summon logics of being from beyond well-established limits.