In Visions of Social Control, (Cohen 1985: 236) Stan Cohen quotes a parable from Saul Alinsky, the radical American community organiser. A fisherman sees a body floating down stream and jumps in to rescue it. The same happens a few minutes later, and then again, and again. When a tenth body floats down, the fisherman leaves it and runs upstream, to find out how to stop these people getting into the water in the first place. This dilemma, realism versus root causes, is a perpetual, tragic tension in social science and policy. Since the 1970s a realist focus on ʻwhat works? in criminal justice has largely bracketed-off broader dimensions of analysis such as political economy. This article will analyse what is meant by political economy, and offer a rapid tour of its ebb and flow in criminology, demonstrating its continuing significance.