This exercise is taken from Chapter 4 of Arrigo, Richard Quinney's "The Prophetic Meaning of Justice," which is briefly summarized here for the Crim class.

Richard Quinney is a professor of sociology who shares Hal Pepinsky's interest in peacemaking. He is the one to whom all these years has been attributed the phrase "crime is socially defined." He has written and taught in the areas of crime, law, and peace.

In Chapter 4 of Arrigo's text, he makes the crucial point that justice is not some neutral balance that remains apart from the world, but, on the contrary, is a very real part of defining that world. By defining what crime is, we are essentially label ling some as "criminals," and some as "not criminals." That may have as much to do with socially constructing our world as some of the behaviors we define as criminal.

But Quinney quotes not just Marx, and the conflict/critical argument that crime is not based upon consensual definitions, but also quotes Tillich, a Catholic theologian, that "Being as being is good." (Biblical form: "God saw everything that he had created, and behold, it was good." Arrigo, at p. 73)

One question you might consider in explaining the concept of prophetic justice is what Tillich might have meant by "Being as being is good." Quinney says that Marx and Tillich both "reaffirm for us the prophetic tradition. Being moves in the direction of that which is demanded." What do you think all this says about crime and evil?