Abstract

To the end of celebrating the memory of our good friend Jock Young, who passed away on 16 November 2013, we present an incredibly rich interview with him, appearing at the same time in Italian and in English (on "Punishment and Society") thanks to René van Swaaningen, who interviewed Jock Young in 2010. In this interview, Young delves on the continuity of his work, from the idea of "moral panic" and the new criminology, to the pragmatism of Left Realism, to cultural criminology. He is harshly critic of contemporary criminology, due to its "naïve positivism" frustrating academic innovation, criminologists lacking courage, and the neo-liberal obsession with counting publications. He invites us to read again the classic theorists, and "bring criminological research back into the heart of sociology". He claims that criminology is "about justice and injustice", where "humour and anger" can still find their own place.