No point in trying to explain crime using
meta-narratives (grand theories) such as
Marxism, Functionalism or Feminism. Treat
each criminal act as a unique one off event
and describe it in detail. Crime is part of an
individuals lifestyle choice, self expression
and creativity, available to all of us in a
postmodern age. (You may choose an identity
as a drug addict, bank robber or prostitute)!
Postmodernist argue that we have moved
away from the modernist theories associated
with the enlightenment towards an era of
social and political thought that might be
described as chaotic. The notion of 'truth' is
problematic. LYOTARD ~ Speaks of the
postmodern condition. This is the notion that
metanarratives (big theories to explain social
reality) have collapsed. We have moved
through narratives to metanarratives, and now
onto seeing society run and ordered through
discourse!
FOUCAULT ~ Develops this further and explain how institutionalised
'knowledge' in the instrument of power that pathologies the 'mad' 'criminal' and
'sexually abnormal'. Institutions, but particularly those associated with politics,
develop a dominant discourse through which everything is seen and understood.
Knowledge is power. BAUDRILLARD ~ Explains how society has moved from
reality to hyper-reality in which there is simulacrums. Such Simulacrums make it
difficult, or in some cases impossible to tell what is real and what is not!