Criminology Needs an Integral Vision

Academy
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This article supports the claim that there is substantial agreement within the discipline that criminology (and criminal justice) is in need of a change in approach. This article maintains that a framework is needed to organize the contributions and partial truths of existing disciplinary knowledge. It is argued that criminology needs an “orienting perspective” or a “meta-theory.” The article proposes that the Integral model provides a functional and apposite framework for addressing these problems. An in-depth, AQAL-based justification for this proposition is provided.

RANDY L. MARTIN, Ph.D., is a Co-Director of the Integral Criminology Center at Integral Institute. He has been a Professor in the Department of Criminology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania for the past 18 years where he has been developing integral applications for all his courses. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in social/personality psychology from the University of Nebraska. Randy has been working in higher education for 22 years, initially in the psychology department at a small liberal arts college and then into his current position at IUP. This interdisciplinary perspective has enhanced his interest in and commitment to the Integral model.

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I think what we need is a kind of test or process to determine and place people into one of four categories:

  • Wants to reform and is ready to take active steps toward reformation
  • Wants to reform but currently does not have the ability to be reformed
  • Unwilling to be reformed
  • Is trying to “game” the reformation process

This is one of those things that you can just kind of “feel” in human interaction, but coming up with an iron clad methodology is beyond our current sociopolitical environment.

On a side note, a similar classification might be appropriate to “Integral” organizations - especially the “gaming the system” classification. I’ve seen many organizations or communities fail when a few “posers” entrench themselves and play the game of appearing to match the community values but actually do not - then when they get a following or into leadership positions it often destroys the community.