Sociology & Criminology for a Changing World
Prisons are among the most visible and contested institutions of modern societies. They represent the state’s ultimate power to deprive individuals of liberty, justified in the name of justice, order, and security. Yet the prison is not a timeless or natural institution: it emerged historically under specific social, political, and cultural conditions. In criminology and
Crime Control as Industry: Towards GULAGS, Western Style? is one of the most influential works in critical criminology. Published in 1993 by Norwegian criminologist Nils Christie, the book delivers a stark critique of modern penal systems, particularly the alarming growth of incarceration in Western democracies. Christie likens the penal apparatus to a profit-oriented industry and
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is a groundbreaking work by civil rights lawyer and legal scholar Michelle Alexander. Published in 2010, the book argues that the U.S. prison system operates as a contemporary system of racial caste, replacing earlier forms of racial control such as slavery and segregation. With
With her concise and powerful book Are Prisons Obsolete?, published in 2003, American activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis delivers a fundamental critique of the prison system in the United States. She argues that the prison has become a normalized and invisible institution—deeply embedded in the fabric of modern society—despite its racist, classist, and patriarchal
The Politics of Abolition (1974) by Thomas Mathiesen is one of the most influential works in penal abolitionism and critical criminology. In a radical departure from traditional theories of punishment, Mathiesen advocates not for alternative forms of punishment, but for the abolition of the prison system altogether—calling into question the legitimacy of the entire penal