“It Is the Sensual, Stupid”: Katz and the Futures of Criminology

Abstract

We discuss the contributions of Jack Katz to the field of criminology with a particular focus on his 1988 book, Seductions of Crime. This book emerged out of a time in American history when criminal justice policy was shaped in part by moral panic over the 1980s’ American crime wave. We argue that SOC’s pragmatic approach to phenomenology owes much to this historical context. The vision outlined in the book represents an ideal foundation on which to build a future criminology in tune with the direction of innovation in the field. In making this case, we review the core contributions of the work from our perspective. We then explore the complicated “politics” of Katz’s argument – defying easy labels of left and right, and discuss the significance of a growing divide between the opinions of lay persons and expert accounts of crime. The modes of inquiry that Katz reawakened with his analysis have many as of yet untapped riches to offer, not only to criminological theory but also to criminal justice reform. In particular, we argue that urgent contemporary trends toward “public criminology,” “convict criminology” both could find, in SOC, an ideal epistemological starting place.

Citation

King, A. and Maruna, S. (2020), "“It Is the Sensual, Stupid”: Katz and the Futures of Criminology", Polizzi, D. (Ed.) Jack Katz, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 25-39. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78756-072-720201002