In late twentieth century criminology, few thinkers rivaled Richard Quinney for the scope or controversy of their work. Widely regarded as the founder of the critical criminology movement, Quinney was the author and editor of some two dozen books examining the relationship of crime to capitalism. As a professor of sociology at Northern Illinois University (NIU) from the 1960s through the late 1990s, he developed a radical critique of crime and society. Approaching the subject from Marxist, humanist, and even religious perspectives, he asserted that crime is a product of our political and economic systems, whose dominant classes shape the law to suit themselves and control others.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin in his home state, Quinney entered criminology during an era of intellectual ferment. After decades of being classified as a minor field under other disciplines, criminology was coming into its own in the United...