Positive Criminology — the Criminology of the Future?

摘要

Reflections of scholars on the future of criminology have become acute. This is not just a natural process of its development, but the reaction to the existing uncertainty in the formation of its future methodological principles and the reflection of a complex, contradictory and even destructive period of reforming basic foundations of the society itself with negative forecasts of its development. The direction of the future criminology development, to a significant extent, will depend on the format and degree of perfection of the future society. The need to modernize conceptual and theoretical foundations of fundamental criminology in the face of changing forms and dimensions of crime is now universally recognized, with many basic categories of criminological science being under consideration and not receiving satisfactory answers because of the researchers' adherence to outdated theoretical views. Today, there is a need to create conceptual foundations for the future criminology as an integrative science with the perspective use of ideas put forward and grounded by philosophical and psychological science and, possibly, esoteric provisions that have not been included in the methodology of criminology so far but could be useful for solving criminological problems . It is necessary to support proposals for determining and substantiating fundamentally new approaches to expanding methodological and theoretical arsenals of criminology, for uniting the efforts of representatives of all humanitarian and even natural and exact sciences. It seems important to actualize the problem of the possibility and expediency of using a humane-personal approach as a counterweight to total robotization and violence, as well as critical rethinking of established views on the omnipotence of belligerent solution of social problems, including crime. The assumption that any crime is a manifestation of not just immorality, but spiritual slavery (with the only exception when the state itself and its laws are criminal) needs thorough specific examination. Speaking about inadmissibility of exaggerating the role of compulsory methods of ensuring public security and increase in the degree of tolerance of society to deviant behavior, we must also see a certain limit that can not be overstepped in order not to disturb the delicate balance between human rights and public security interests.