Fin de Siècle Criminology

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Abstract
The culture of fin de siècle Vienna was characterized by a struggle for (intellectual) autonomy against social exclusion. One of the manifestations of the latter was the foundation of scientific criminology. It was and has remained a science of social exclusion. The struggle is illustrated by the story of the troubled relation between Hans Gross, one of the founding fathers of criminology, and his son Otto Gross, psychoanalyst and `anarchist'. An interpretation of Kafka's `In the Penal Colony' illustrates the colonialist root of criminology's attitude of exclusion. It is argued that the hopeful beginnings of a `critique of criminology' at different points in this century, particularly in the 1960/70s, have regressed into a `critical' part of criminology, retaining the latter's exclusionary concept of `crime'. Some minimal requirements of the necessary `critique of criminology' are outlined.

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