POSITIVE SCHOOL AND NEOCONSERVATISM: DANGEROUS INDIVIDUAL AND UNDERCLASS AS DIFFERENT JUSTIFICATIONS FOR THE COMMON OBJECTIVE OF CRIMINALIZATION OF POVERTY

Abstract

The article takes a comparative approach between the dangerous individual of
the Positive School and the North American underclass, as the cause of the
criminal problem. The analysis aims to demonstrate that the explanation of the
criminal phenomenon purposely leaves aside central issues such as, for
example, the priority of interest payments to private investors to the detriment of
social investments. Furthermore, by focusing on the individual, it leaves structural
issues outside the scope of discussion, placing responsibility for crime and
criminality, to a greater extent, on a population that is totally or partially excluded.
To achieve this purpose, qualitative methodology will be used based on the
inductive method, therefore, the starting point is circumscribed or specific
questions, such as the dangerous individual and the underclass, which allow
broad conclusions to be reached regarding structural issues of the systems
researched, such as selectivity and social exclusion from the criminal system.