The Pennsylvania School of Criminology: Building Tipping Points for a Discipline

Lawrence W. Sherman*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Since its founding in the 1920s, the Pennsylvania School of Criminology has generated repeated tipping points for our discipline. The Pennsylvania School's theoretical contributions have counter-intuitively stressed a perceived moral obligation to break the law as a central facet of understanding crime from a biopsychosocial perspective, especially violence. In theory, methods, and policy, the Pennsylvania School generated repeated changes of the kind analyzed in Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point, perhaps the best-selling social science book in human history. In its theory, methods, and applications, the Pennsylvania School can be mapped by the intellectual links and intergenerational closure among Pennsylvania scholars within and across different eras. The use of violence in a subculture is not necessarily viewed as illicit conduct, and the users therefore do not have to deal with feelings of guilt about their aggression. The numerous continuities of theories, methods, and policies cited above suggest that there is indeed a Pennsylvania School of Criminology.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Origins of American Criminology
Subtitle of host publicationAdvances in Criminological Theory, Voulme 16
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages175-204
Number of pages30
Volume16
ISBN (Electronic)9781351477857
ISBN (Print)9781138516557
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2017
Externally publishedYes

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