First published in 1999. This concludes work on a series Current Issues in Criminal Justice. Criminology. The book represents another milestone in a criminologist’s journey to uncover some “truths” about the discipline and to reflectcritically on how that field has evolved. This journey, some of youmay remember, began in The Sociology of Criminological Theory:Paradigm or Fad and continued in The Demise of the CriminologicalImagination. To date, this latest work has already attracted considerabledebate and in the tradition of C. Wright Mills, engendered somewhatheated discussion about the philosophy of criminology and the logic ofits paradigms. What is perhaps most exciting about this work is that it is critical, in the true sense of critical, a term that has been abused and overused.