Sociology & Criminology for a Changing World
Women and Crime (1985) by British sociologist Frances Heidensohn is considered the founding text of modern feminist criminology. As one of the first scholars in the field, Heidensohn systematically analyzed why women had long been ignored, misrepresented, or solely portrayed as victims in criminology—and why existing theories of crime failed to account for the lived
Behind the Gates is an ethnographic key work in the field of critical security and urban studies. In this book, American anthropologist Setha M. Low examines the social, political, and cultural dynamics of so-called gated communities—residential areas with restricted access. Based on extensive fieldwork in the New York metropolitan area, Low analyzes how fear of
Stephen Graham’s „Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism“ (2010) is a disturbing yet influential work that analyzes the creeping militarization of urban spaces. Against the backdrop of the “War on Terror” and a globalized security architecture, Graham shows how military logics, technologies, and control practices increasingly permeate everyday life in Western cities. The book
Cultural Criminology: An Invitation Cultural Criminology: An Invitation, first published in 2008 by Jeff Ferrell, Keith J. Hayward, and Jock Young, represents the first comprehensive foundational work on cultural criminology. The book functions as a programmatic introduction, a theoretical systematization, and an academic manifesto of a perspective that views crime not merely as a rule
With City Limits, British cultural criminologist Keith J. Hayward published an innovative work at the intersection of crime, consumer culture, and urban space. Building on the theoretical foundations of Cultural Criminology, Hayward analyzes how neoliberal notions of order, media imagery, and deviant appropriation converge in the late modern city. He calls for an expanded understanding
With his work Cultural Criminology and the Carnival of Crime (2000), Mike Presdee established a radical perspective within Cultural Criminology. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s carnival theory, Presdee interprets crime not just as a rule violation but as a cultural expression—a subversive ritual, symbolic protest, and form of resistance against social control. Having worked as both