An article from the British Journal of Criminology book review - Essay Example

Also, the book established the need for public criminology and sociology to be reflexive with the changing times. However, according to the author of the book review, Wacquant found some loopholes in the arguments presented by Loader and Sparks such as giving too much focus on public sociology in the United States, too little discussions on the need to overhaul the methods used by the universities in teaching and procuring information, and no suggestions in controlling the degree of isolation of criminology from other areas of sociology or political science.

Lastly, the reviewer mentioned that due to too much focus in the sociological aspects of crime and the lack of focus on the political aspects as well made Public Criminology seem not like a complete book about the subject, but merely just a collection of ideas that pertain to limited ideas of crime-and-punishment that is acceptable to the public standards (Wacquant, 2011, p. 447). Wacquant’s review has credibility based on his own presumptions in dealing with the need to change the system of dealing with crime and punishment as a whole. . ntioned that despite the efforts of sociologists and social academicians to list all things that must be changed for the public to feel such advancements, the lack of any political power to implement these changes make such sociological efforts all in vain, and seem rather projected frustrations in the prevailing status of law and order.

In order to create the needed changes, other parts of the judicial and the political systems must also be changed to apply the changes that academicians and other sociologists deemed relevant. In that aspect, I agree with the reviewer’s stand. However, with regards to changing the overall design of the systems of justice and penalty, Wacquant failed to mention specific scenarios that could arise if criminology itself becomes either totally hybridized with other fields in the social and political sciences, or if totally isolated from them.

Also, there is the rise of people that present themselves as criminologists to the public called “security consultants”, people that are not criminologists but came from other fields of study, making them unable to publish their own works in credible journals (Wacquant, 2011, p. 444). Wacquant’s views might have been even more plausible if he brought up ways to decrease the dependence of criminologists to consultants, because doing so could have added value to his critique in seeing Loader and Sparks’ book as a simplified public criminology handbook.

Lastly, the reviewer asserts that in order for public criminology to be truly “public” in its essence, it must be fully integrated in the culture, economics, politics, and the ideals of the state. For me, public criminology is relevant in the field of psychology and psychotherapy in assessing the mental state of offenders, especially during