The Coming Redefinitions of Crime: An Anarchist Perspective

Abstract

Crime's existence and substance are dependent upon institutionalization of the principle of legality. Crime is a denial of a prospectively defined legal right. A right is a legally guaranteed future access to a valued resource. Crime and penal sanction create a vicious cycle of appropriation. Breaking through this cycle requires an understanding of the structural concomitants of appropriation and law. An analysis of hierarchy, stratification, differentiation, relational quality, individualism, and commitment to structure demonstrates that: (1) distributive and participatory inequality are the foundations for appropriation; and (2) individual claims to appropriate are absurd and unjust because the means of production are the collective work of humankind. An exploration of the assumptions of the principle of legality leads to the inference that any response to human conflict that respects individual authenticity and sovereignty, human diversity, competency, and shared responsibility can only be articulated retrospectively. With an increased awareness that each person is unique, diverse, separate and at once unified in the need to search for meaning, understanding, bonding and solidarity, the concept of justice is evolving. A needs-based conception (to each according to need, taking into account the resources available to all) is replacing a rights-based and deserts-based conception of justice. Though crime, law, and their institutional supports have increased, symbiotic human relationships are also increasingly being crafted from the human sentiments of commiseration and solidarity. If these developments continue to gather momentum, a system of retrospective justice, of needs-based justice, of anarchy, will continuously evolve.

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