No. 18 (1982)

This issue addresses the need to develop more sophisticated and complex theoretical work and to revive a tradition of praxis in criminology. The first section, "Social Justice and Social Policy," discusses progressive alternatives to the Right's law-and-order campaign against the working class, with contributions by two prominent socialist sociologists from England. The rise of the Right in Britain, as exemplified by both Thatcherism and neofascist parties, sparked considerable debate in England about the demise of a social democratic consensus and the rapid successes of the right-wing forces.

The failure of the Left to "take crime seriously" is addressed by intellectuals in the British Left. The backgrounder on "The Repressive Side of Monetarism" provides a framework for understanding the rise of the Right in Britain. The essay on welfare in Britain raises important questions about the Right's successful campaign against welfare in a former bastion of the "welfare state." Authors discuss how the Right also campaigned against rehabilitation and welfare in the U.S., albeit from a different political perspective.

Tony Platt critically assesses the failures and weaknesses of the New Left, and calls for a program of action that links immediate reforms with long-term strategies. Other authors call for economic and social reforms at the local level in the U.S., while a prison activist in Canada discusses the need to increase the level of tactical militancy in the prison movement. Book reviews explore the problems progressive teachers face in the classroom and recommend textbooks useful for combating the ideology of law and order.