Sociology & Criminology for a Changing World
In her book Security (2009), British legal scholar and criminologist Lucia Zedner offers a normatively sensitive, interdisciplinary, and conceptually precise analysis of the notion of security. She shows that “security” is not an objective or neutral good, but rather a complex social construction that is mobilized differently in politics, criminal law, and society. Zedner’s work
In Surveillance Studies: An Overview, Canadian sociologist David Lyon presents a comprehensive introduction to the field of surveillance studies. The book is both a synthesis and a call to take surveillance seriously as a social phenomenon. Lyon argues that surveillance is no longer merely a specialized instrument of intelligence services or criminal justice but has
Predict and Surveil is one of the first ethnographic studies of data-driven policing in the United States. In this landmark work, American sociologist Sarah Brayne focuses on the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), a pioneer in predictive policing—and a department widely criticized for its surveillance practices. Brayne analyzes how big data, algorithmic predictions, and digital
The Viewer Society, written by the Norwegian sociologist and criminologist Thomas Mathiesen, presents one of the most influential extensions of Michel Foucault’s panopticism. In an age of accelerating video surveillance, mass media, and digital communication, Mathiesen proposes a shift in perspective: instead of focusing solely on the few who watch the many, we must also
Enforcing Order, written by French anthropologist and sociologist Didier Fassin, is a dense ethnographic study of everyday policing in the French banlieues. Based on several years of participant observation within an anti-crime brigade (BAC), Fassin reveals how police act as instruments of control and social exclusion in marginalized urban areas. The study is not only
The Politics of the Police (first published in 1985, fourth edition in 2010) is arguably the most influential work by British criminologist Robert Reiner. As the standard English-language reference on policing, the book offers a comprehensive analysis of the British police system—its historical development, political governance, and social function. Reiner’s work exemplifies a critical approach