Critical Realism and Criminological Theory represents an attempt to revitalise the project of The New Criminology, accomplished by means of a critical review of key theoretical perspectives in criminology, and the attempt to synthesise the usable and valuable elements of these into a fully integrated social theory. Criminological theories are not necessarily mutually incompatible competitors, but offer partial insights into a multi-faceted social world. The problem of each tends to be that of over-generalisation.

This critical review will be based on and informed by the social ontology of Critical Realism, a new perspective in the philosophy of social science. This is necessary because CR provides a coherent account of how to reconcile the positivist (causal) and interpretivist (voluntary and meaningful) dimensions of social life within a sociological theory of contemporary society.

This book will be of great interest to academics and students of critial realism as well as those researching criminological theory.