Sociology & Criminology for a Changing World
Jock Young was a pioneering British criminologist whose work spans critical criminology, left realism, and cultural criminology. He began his career with the co-authored New Criminology and went on to help found the tradition of left realism in the 1980s. Young later became a central figure in cultural criminology, analyzing crime through the lenses of
Paul Walton was a British sociologist and criminologist, best known for his collaboration on The New Criminology and his work in media and cultural studies. A prominent figure in the field of critical criminology, Walton was also a co-author of the influential study Policing the Crisis, which analyzed moral panics and media representations of crime
Ian Taylor was a British sociologist and criminologist known for his contributions to critical criminology and his role in co-authoring The New Criminology (1973). A committed Marxist thinker, Taylor sought to integrate political economy and social theory into criminological analysis. He later moved toward cultural criminology and urban sociology, with an interest in consumerism and
Ronald V. Clarke is a prominent British-American criminologist who significantly shaped modern crime prevention theory and practice. As a leading proponent of the situational crime prevention (SCP) approach, Clarke argued that crime could be effectively reduced by altering the immediate environment to increase the perceived effort and risk while reducing the rewards of criminal activity.
Derek B. Cornish was a British criminologist best known for his collaboration with Ronald V. Clarke in developing the rational choice perspective on criminal behavior. Together, they edited the influential volume The Reasoning Criminal: Rational Choice Perspectives on Offending (1986), which brought together empirical studies and theoretical essays to argue that offenders make calculated decisions
Gary S. Becker was a pioneering economist who extended the scope of economic analysis to a wide range of human behavior, including crime, family relations, education, and discrimination. His groundbreaking application of rational choice theory to non-market behavior led to the development of what is often called “economic imperialism”—the use of economic principles to explain