DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AS A TOOL FOR CRITICAL CRIMINOLOGY

Abstract

This paper explores the pertinence of using the discourse analysis method to the development of criminological research adept to the radical paradigm. It aims, thus, to offer an introductory contact to this methodology and to relate its application to criminal critic. For this purpose, after an initial panorama on this method and an introductory contextualization on some of the main premises of critical criminology, with special focus on the question of the social reaction for this perspective, potential intersections between both fields are outlined, revealing their compatibility. Successful examples of its use in the critical approach to the criminal phenomenon are then highlighted, concluding that discourse analysis is a tool of great adequacy to the premises and to the objectives of the investigations in radical criminology. It is finally suggested that its use as an empirical method of approach to the criminal question should be extended, amplifying its intrinsic potentialities.