Bent Society: The Origin of Gonzo Criminology!

This is a fully anonymous blog with several regular contributors and an occasional named guest blogger. The opinions published here are not or may not be those of any employer, member of the Bent Society or other organisation. Looking into the Bent Side of Everything, a Growing Band of Concerned and Dedicated Gonzo Criminologists, Sociologists, Other Academics and Upstanding Citizens, Conduct Ethical Yet Ad-Hoc Independent Research. CLICK TITLE ABOVE FOR LATEST ARTICLE.

Friday, 9 April 2010

Bent Society On Bullshit Criminology

In his best selling book, On Bullshit, Princeton University moral philosopher Harry Frankfurt (2005; pp. 60-61) usefully makes an important distinction between lies and bullshit.

Frankfurt describes bullshit as being distinct from a lie in that a liar knows the truth and seeks to steer the recipient of the message away from the truth, whereas the bullshitter does not know what the truth is and is merely concerned with telling a plausible story:

“He does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it at all. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.”

Accepting Frankfurt's definition, is there much bullshit in criminology? Are many criminologists bullshitters?

The answer to both questions, in my opinion, is yes.

We’ll be letting you in on some examples of criminal criminology very soon.

Lox

References

Frankfurt, H. (2005) On Bullshit. Princeton N.J.. Princeton University Press.

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What is Gonzo Criminology?

Gonzo Criminology employs personal experiences and humor when researching a topic or event.

For the purposes of the pursuit of knowledge, Gonzo Criminology seeks accuracy at all times by telling it like it is.

Loathing of quackery in crime reduction and fearing hidden bias in official crime data - such as that produced by the British Crime Survey - while accepting at all times that genuinely reliable and valid data is better than that which is biased or fabricated, Gonzo Criminologists aim to reveal the whole picture behind claims of independence and sampling representation in the published research, beliefs and opinions of others.

Gonzo criminologists tend to instigate events themselves, often remaining anonymous, and exploiting the connectivity of the Internet in a mischievously creative manner; followed by blogging about their actions and those of others.

Bound by the codes of ethics of the British and American Societies of Criminology, yet 100 per cent unconnected to any university, funding organisations, or other official groupings, Gonzo Criminology projects are empowered to by-pass the workings of research ethics committees.

Gonzo criminology research projects are timely, fast moving and responsive.

Gonzo Criminology takes its name from Gonzo Journalist Hunter S Thompson, but is less than half-inspired by a selection of his methods and philosophy.

What is Bent Society?

This website is about practices that possibly facilitate social harm through eroding the standards and behaviour of others. Bent Society is private, social, corporate and government life where we witness, participate in or else fall victim to strangely neglected behaviours, policies and practices that are illegal, illicit or harmful, are unjust or unfairly predatory and reflect deceit, untruth, duplicity or insincerity.

A major aim of the Bent Society blog is to engage the general public in criminological, sociological and psychological issues and to take on-board their feedback in building a new field of criminology. Namely: Curmudgeonly Criminology

The hope here is that Curmudgeonly Criminology will engage academic criminologists to be more true to themselves and to society in their research, writing and teaching. In other words to really, truthfully, and from the heart as well as the head, tell it like it really is.

Bent Society: The Origin of Gonzo Criminology!

Friday, 9 April 2010

Bent Society On Bullshit Criminology

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