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Radical Theory

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Radical theory is based on the ideas and beliefs of German sociologist Karl Marx. It is based on his theoretical framework that relates with the capitalist mode within production, the state, law, criminal control, and crime (Thomas, B. 1981). There are three competing interpretations of how the previous factors are interrelated the ruling class determinists, the economic determinists, and the dialectical. In the ruling class, a mostly homogeneous group of capitalists can manipulate the state and law for its own interests. In the economic class, the functions of the state are presumed to be determined by the structure of society, not by people, who occupy positions of state power or by individual capitalists. Finally, the dialectical combine the other two …show more content…

Its ideas first appeared in law in the 1980s and emphasized three key issues: the centrality of language, partial knowledge and provisional truth, and deconstruction, difference, and possibility. First of all, language shapes reality. Language is necessary to express feelings, ideas, passions, and thoughts thus it shapes our reality. Second, because language structures thought in ways that are neither neutral nor complete, then rationality, logic, and meaning are limited by the dominant language in use. Therefore, what we take to be truth as an articulated expression of knowledge, can at best, be defined merely as a provisional, relational, and/or positional reality. Deconstruction is a method used by postmodernists to understand the randomness of truth. They seek to identify the differences in language and to place them all in a valued and respected position. Postmodernists believe that there is more than one interpretation of the law even in the United States Constitution. Instead they believe that there is a multitude of interpretations that are dependent upon the particular social context in which they arise (Bohm & Vogel,

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