Cultural Criminology: An Invitation [Paperback]

Professor Zygmaut Bauman

Cultural criminology has been written about and discussed at length in criminology circles over the last five years -- including by the well-known trio of Ferrell, Hayward and Young -- but this is their best work to date on this fascinating approach and its significance. 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 and the Graduate Centre

An invitation indeed. The cultural criminology project described by Jeff Ferrell, Keith Hayward and Jock Young in this remarkable book will surely inspire many students of crime and crime control to accept their invitation and join the movement. The book comes at precisely the right time, as a powerful synthesis of a set of ideas, research practices, and political sentiments that have energized an expanding network of criminological researchers during the last two decades...no one can fail to be impressed by the skill and energy they have brought to this effort. With their remarkable grasp of the intricate details of contemporary cultural life and a narrative style that expresses the distinctive energy and flow of the late modern era, the book’s authors demonstrate cultural criminology’s purchase on the world of crime and transgression in the 21st century...

this book represents by far the most comprehensive examination of this emerging criminological perspective...a key text in the development of cultural criminology.

Stephen Lyng
Carthage College, USA

Cultural criminology is still developing and this book, and the work that has developed in the cultural criminology tradition, has reenergised criminology and brought the offender back into the picture. This picture is vivid, energetic and passionate.

Craig Webber
University of Southampton, UK

'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