Key Ideas in Criminology explores the major concepts, issues, debates and controversies in criminology. The series provides authoritative essays on central topics within the broader area of criminology. Each book adopts a strong individual ‘line’, constituting original essays rather than literature surveys and offers lively and agenda setting treatments of their subject matter.
These books will appeal to students, teachers and researchers in criminology, sociology, social policy, cultural studies, law and political science.
By Rob Canton
June 10, 2022
This book explores the concept of punishment: its meaning and significance, not least to those subject to it; its social, political and emotional contexts; its role in the criminal justice system; and the difficulties of bringing punishment to an end. It explores how levels of criminal punishment ...
By David Churchill, Henry Yeomans, Iain Channing
November 30, 2021
This book sets an agenda for the development of historical approaches to criminology. It defines ‘historical criminology’, explores its characteristic strengths and limitations, and considers its potential to enhance, revise and fundamentally challenge dominant modes of thinking about crime and ...
By Katja Franko
December 18, 2019
Western societies are immersed in debates about immigration and illegality. This book examines these processes and outlines how the figure of the "crimmigrant other" has emerged not only as a central object of media and political discourse, but also as a distinct penal subject connecting...
By Steve Tombs, David Whyte
April 07, 2015
Drawing upon a wide range of sources of empirical evidence, historical analysis and theoretical argument, this book shows beyond any doubt that the private, profit-making, corporation is a habitual and routine offender. The book dissects the myth that the corporation can be a rational, responsible...
By Ralph Henham
August 30, 2013
Sentencing is the process through which the legitimacy of punishment is declared and justified. However, it is increasingly portrayed as a social activity which should be more responsive to the pluralistic needs and values of individuals and communities in contemporary society. It will therefore ...
By Claire Renzetti
May 21, 2013
Feminist criminology grew out of the Women’s Movement of the 1970s, in response to the male dominance of mainstream criminology – which meant that not only were women largely excluded from carrying out criminological research, they were also barely considered as subjects of that research. In this...
By Ian Loader, Richard Sparks
July 05, 2010
What is the role and value of criminology in a democratic society? How do, and how should, its practitioners engage with politics and public policy? How can criminology find a voice in an agitated, insecure and intensely mediated world in which crime and punishment loom large in government agendas ...
By Alex Alvarez
October 15, 2009
Genocide has emerged as one of the leading problems of the twentieth century. No corner of the world seems immune from this form of collective violence. While many individuals are familiar with the term, few people have a clear understanding of what genocide is and how it is carried out. This book ...
By Lucia Zedner
March 19, 2009
Just a decade ago security had little claim to criminological attention. Today a combination of disciplinary paradigm shifts, policy changes, and world political events have pushed security to the forefront of the criminological agenda. Distinctions between public safety and private protection, ...
By Tony Ward, Shadd Maruna
May 03, 2007
Over the last two decades, empirical evidence has increasingly supported the view that it is possible to reduce re-offending rates by rehabilitating offenders rather than simply punishing them. In fact, the pendulum’s swing back from a pure punishment model to a rehabilitation model is arguably one...
By John Pratt
November 30, 2006
Expertly drawing on international examples and existing literature, Penal Populism closes a gap in the field of criminology. In this fascinating expose of current crime policy John Pratt examines the role played by penal populism on trends in contemporary penal policy. Penal populism is associated ...
