Sociology & Criminology for a Changing World
Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher, jurist, and social reformer, best known as the founder of modern utilitarianism. His influential work An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789) laid the foundations for a consequentialist ethics based on the principle of „the greatest happiness of the greatest number.“ Bentham believed that laws and
Cesare Beccaria was an Italian philosopher, economist, and jurist, widely regarded as one of the founding figures of classical criminology and modern criminal law. His seminal work Dei delitti e delle pene (On Crimes and Punishments, 1764) was a groundbreaking critique of arbitrary justice, torture, and the death penalty. Beccaria argued for rational, proportionate, and
Cesare Lombroso was an Italian physician, psychiatrist, and criminologist, widely regarded as the founder of the positivist school of criminology. In his seminal work L’uomo delinquente (The Criminal Man, 1876), he introduced the controversial theory of the “born criminal,” arguing that criminal tendencies could be identified through physical anomalies or stigmata. Lombroso’s biological determinism laid
Robert K. Merton was one of the most influential American sociologists of the 20th century. Known for his theoretical clarity and empirical orientation, Merton made significant contributions to the sociology of science, deviance, and social structure. He was a student of Talcott Parsons but developed a more pragmatic and middle-range approach to theory, focusing on
Stanley Cohen was a leading figure in the development of deviance sociology and critical criminology. His work Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972) became a foundational text in understanding how media, state institutions, and public discourse construct and amplify deviant identities. Cohen introduced the influential concepts of moral panic and folk devils, which have since
John Irwin was a former prisoner turned sociologist who profoundly reshaped the academic and political discourse on incarceration in the United States. As a founder of the field of prison sociology, he combined firsthand experience with scholarly rigor to analyze the structural and cultural dynamics of prison life. His seminal works, including The Felon (1970)