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CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE UNITED STATES *
Author(s) -
RAFTER NICOLE HAHN
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
criminology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.467
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1745-9125
pISSN - 0011-1384
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1992.tb01115.x
Subject(s) - criminology , perspective (graphical) , discipline , sociology , value (mathematics) , field (mathematics) , knowledge production , work (physics) , political science , social science , engineering , mechanical engineering , knowledge management , mathematics , machine learning , artificial intelligence , computer science , pure mathematics
Criminologists continue to debate fundamental issues about the nature of their work. Some of the issues were built into the field by the criminal anthropologists who founded it a century ago. By examining the work of major American criminal anthropologists—a nearly forgotten group—one can identify the origins of three enduring problems: criminology's difficulties in (1) establishing its disciplinary boundaries; (2) defining its methods: and (3) deciding whether its primary goal is crime control or the production of knowledge with no immediate use‐value. The study of criminology's roots in criminal anthropology cannot settle these debates, but it can put them in historical perspective and clarify their substance.