Speech for the defense of a radically constructivist sociology of (criminal) law

If the idea that crime is a social construct is commonsensical in various sociologically informed criminologies, sociological apprehensions of criminal law are still quite reluctant towards its implied epistemological stance. The main objective of this contribution is—by focusing on the idea that crime is a social construct—to examine some of the main contours of what a radically constructivist conception of (criminal) law could be. The paper identifies two potential problems, which can be avoided, in perspectives on crime as a social construction. It is proposed to break down any aprioristic relationship between deviance, abnormality and crime, and that we may decompartmentalize law from the juridical in a quite flexible way.