Criminal Law from the Perspective of Postmodern Criminology

Postmodern criminology is a branch of contemporary critical criminology that was formed under the influence of the ideas of French and German thinkers and philosophers and the postmodernism movement in the 1980s. This criminology inspired by the teachings of these scholars gives new reading of criminal law with emphasis on subjectivity, discourse and power and rejects the scientific etiology. Postmodern criminology with reliance to structural factors of crime like racism, ethnic and gender discrimination, and emphasis on alternative and peaceful intercourses and reform of institutional structures and systems of domination plays an important role in the evolution of criminological theory, and the philosophy of criminal law. It has played an important role in the development of criminological theories and philosophy of criminal law. This approach, in addition to its criticism against the performance of the institutions of criminal justice system, questions the basic concepts of criminal law and classical interpretations of that. It searches the causes of crime in discontinuation of non-dominant discourses and inequality in the distribution of power in society. Considering the nature, purpose and characteristics of postmodern Criminology and it’s differences with other Criminological theories, this article studies and assesses the fundamental concepts of criminal law from the perspective of postmodern criminology.