Contains contributions on the theme of popular culture, crime, and social control. This title includes chapters that tease out various criminologically relevant issues, pertaining to crime/deviance and/or the control thereof, on the basis of an analysis of various aspects and manifestations of popular culture, including music, and movies.
The past 30 years have seen vast changes in our attitudes toward crime. More and more of us live in gated communities; prison populations have skyrocketed; and issues such as racial profiling, community policing, and "zero-tolerance" policies dominate the headlines. How is it that our response to crime and our sense of criminal justice has come to be so dramatically reconfigured? David Garland charts the changes in crime and criminal justice in America and Britain over the past twenty-five years, showing how they have been shaped by two underlying social forces: the distinctive social organization of late modernity and the neoconservative politics that came to dominate the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s. Garland explains how the new policies of crime and punishment, welfare and security—and the changing class, race, and gender relations that underpin them—are linked to the fundamental problems of governing contemporary societies, as states, corporations, and private citizens grapple with a volatile economy and a culture that combines expanded personal freedom with relaxed social controls. It is the risky, unfixed character of modern life that underlies our accelerating concern with control and crime control in particular. It is not just crime that has changed; society has changed as well, and this transformation has reshaped criminological thought, public policy, and the cultural meaning of crime and criminals. David Garland's The Culture of Control offers a brilliant guide to this process and its still-reverberating consequences.
James J. Chriss carefully guides readers through the debates about social control. The book provides a comprehensive guide to historical debates and more recent controversies, examining in detail the criminal justice system, medicine, everyday life and national security.
The Handbook of Social Control offers a comprehensive review of the concepts of social control in today's environment and focuses on the most relevant theories associated with social control. With contributions from noted experts in the field across 32 chapters, the depth and scope of the Handbook reflects the theoretical and methodological diversity that exists within the study of social control. Chapters explore various topics including: theoretical perspectives; institutions and organizations; law enforcement; criminal justice agencies; punishment and incarceration; surveillance; and global developments. This Handbook explores a variety of issues and themes on social control as being a central theme of criminological reflection. The text clearly demonstrates the rich heritage of the major relevant perspectives of social control and provides an overview of the most important theories and dimensions of social control today. Written for academics, undergraduate, and graduate students in the fields of criminology, criminal justice, and sociology, The Handbook of Social Control is an indispensable resource that explores a contemporary view of the concept of social control.
In Making Trouble leading scholars in criminology, sociology, criminal justice, women's studies, and social history explore the mediated cultural dynamics that construct images and understanding of crime, deviance, and control. Contributors examine the intertwined practices of the mass media, criminal justice agencies, political power holders, and criminal and deviant subcultures in producing and consuming contested representations of legality and illegality. While the collection provides broad analysis of contemporary topics, it also weaves this analysis around a set of innovative and unifying themes. These include the emergence of ""situated media"" within and between the various subcultures of crime, deviance, and control; the evolution of policing and social control as complex webs of mediated and symbolic meaning; the role of power, identity, and indifference in framing contemporary crime controversies, with special attention paid to the gendered construction of crime, deviance and control; and the importance of historical and cross-cultural dynamics in shaping understandings of crime, deviance, and control.
Winner of the ASC Distinguished Book Award for International Research! 'Beautifully written and superbly conceived, with illustrations and examples that combine theory and practice across a range of disciplines, Cultural Criminology should be read by anyone – academics and smart readers alike – interested in crime, media, culture and social theory. Bravo to Ferrell, Hayward and Young on a tour de force that is at once cool and classic! Cultural Criminology will influence the field for a very long time to come.' - Professor Lynn Chancer, Hunter College, CUNY, USA `This is not just a book on the present state and possible prospects of our understanding of crime, criminals and our responses to both. However greatly criminologists might benefit from the authors' illuminating insights and the new cognitive vistas their investigations have opened, the impact of this book may well stretch far beyond the realm of criminology proper and mark a watershed in the progress of social study as such.' - Zygmunt Bauman, Emeritus Professor, University of Leeds, UK `Cultural Criminology offers a fresh new perspective on both criminality and criminal justice. It outlines the cultural hegemony of the powerful while also documenting the growing resistance to mindless criminalization and mass incarceration. Artfully written, the authors also document the work of those consciously creating a new political space to challenge the increasingly global, security society that seems inextricably tied up with late capitalism.' - Meda Chesney-Lind, University of Hawaii at Manoa `Creative, challenging and controversial: a manifesto for mean times' - Tony Jefferson, Visiting Presidential Scholar, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, USA Here is the definitive book on cultural criminology. Lively, innovative, engaging and accessible, Cultural Criminology draws together the work of three of the leading international figures in the field today. The book traces the history, current configuration, methodological innovations and future trajectories of cultural criminology, mapping its terrain for students and academics interested in this exciting field. The book highlights and analyses issues of representation, meaning and politics in relation to crime and criminal justice, covering areas such as: - Crime and the media - Everyday life and everyday transgression - Popular culture - Consumerism - Globalisation - Social control The use of vignettes, case studies and visual material throughout the text brings the subject to life. Cultural Criminology is indispensable to students, lecturers and researchers in criminology, sociology, cultural studies and media studies. Jeff Ferrell is Professor of Criminal Justice at Texas Christian University and Visiting Professor at the University of Kent. Keith Hayward is Director of Studies for Criminology/ Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Kent. Jock Young is Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent and Distinguished Professor at John Jay College, CUNY. For more information about the authors and cultural criminology, see http://www.culturalcriminology.org
Attempts to understand why African and Americans are over-represented in United States crime statistics have been made complex by the existence of a multiplicity of explanations. Every adult in the United States seems to know what causes crime, and is prepared to present some seasoned argument in support of their view. Because of the existence of this divergence, attempts to device a viable format for solving either the crime problem, the discrimination problem or the over representation problem continues to be difficult. Important aspects of authentic jurisprudence that acknowledge the need to examine a victim's contribution to the criminal event, retributive justice and collective responsibility, are essential attributes of traditional African culture. These attributes are conspicuously absent in the official social control systems that currently exist in the United States. This book suggests that to reduce or eliminate African American involvement in crime therefore, it is necessary to incorporate those attributes of equity and justice, which are essential components of the traditional legal systems of their ancestors into our official social control systems. Such incorporation will help to reconnect African Americans with their ancestral lgbo culture, reinforce their knowledge of African history, strengthen their self esteem and encourage the development of pride in their African heritage. It will also help to reduce their involvement as victims or participants in anti social behavior, and eventually solve the overreprentation problem.
This book surveys the history, current status, and critical issues regarding the various mechanisms designed to control sex offenders. It shows that the social problem of sex offending is not apparently resolvable by any of the means currently employed. A large array of procedures are used in the attempt to control the difficult population of sex offenders, including: imprisonment, institutional and community treatment, community monitoring by probation and parole, electronic monitoring, registration as a sex offender, community notification of an offender’s status, strict limits on behavioral movement in the community, and residence restrictions. However, these constraints on behavior are almost completely the result of public outrage regarding sensational sex crimes, overreaction of media coverage that produce inaccurate statements of potential community risk, and the efforts of the legal profession and politicians to quell this anger and foreboding by enacting legislation that supposedly confronts the risk. This book demonstrates that we have constructed a massive edifice of community control that is socially and politically driven and which has largely failed to contain sex crime.
Popular culture is more than just a broad term for entertainment and frivolous diversions; it is also highly relevant to our understanding of society. This exciting book is the first to offer insights into the important, but often overlooked, relationship between popular culture and social problems. Drawing on historical and topical examples, the authors apply an innovative theoretical framework to examine how facets of popular culture--from movies and music to toys, games, billboards, bumper stickers, and bracelets--shape how we think about, and respond to, social issues, such as problems of gender, sexuality, and race. Including student features, evocative case studies, and access to online material, this book will help students explore and understand the essential connection between popular culture and social problems. Deftly combining the fun and irreverence of popular culture with critical scholarly inquiry, this timely book delivers an engaging account of how our interactions with--and consumption of--popular culture matter far more than we may think.
