Contour Of Crimes And Victimization

Modernist thought privileges order, stability, homeostasis, equilibrium, structural functionalism. Chaos theory argues for inherent instabilities. Chaos theory, sometimes referred to as complexity theory, and one of the emerging perspectives in postmodern criminology, is the study of orderly disorder. Chaos theory is the study of dynamic systems that exhibit both `determinism’ and `free will’. Modernist thought has constructed determinism and free will as dualities; chaos theory argues both can be at work in complex, dynamic systems. Thus disorder, instability and far-from-equilibrium conditions are privileged. Within these regions both order and disorder live side by side, not as dualisms. Within these regions `structures’ are extremely sensitive to perturbations. Even very small inputs can produce disproportionate effects. Thus contrary to the privileging of bureaucratic structures as is assumed in homeostatic systems, `dissipative structures’ appear which are only temporary structures of stability.