Metacriminology

The study of how criminology as a discipline produces knowledge about crime and deviance. It examines the biases in criminological research, the influence of state funding on what gets studied, the historical construction of "criminal" categories, and why some harmful acts (corporate crime, state violence) are under-studied while others (street crime) are over-represented. It's criminology doing a background check on itself.

Example: A Metacriminology project might analyze why 90% of published criminology studies focus on crimes of the poor and marginalized, while financial crime and state crime receive a fraction of the research funding and academic attention, despite causing greater social harm. It exposes the field's alignment with state priorities.

by Nammugal February 5, 2026