Sociology & Criminology for a Changing World
In Crime as Structured Action, James W. Messerschmidt presents a groundbreaking theory that interweaves criminology with gender studies, particularly the sociology of masculinity. Rejecting simplistic correlations between gender and crime, Messerschmidt proposes that criminal behavior can serve as a means of accomplishing masculinity—especially when socially legitimate paths to hegemonic masculinity are blocked. His approach is
With their book Queer Criminology (2015), Carrie L. Buist and Emily Lenning lay the foundation for a new criminological subfield that centers queer lives, identities, and experiences in the study of crime and social control. The book challenges the heteronormative and cisnormative assumptions that have long structured mainstream criminology and calls for a fundamental rethinking
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
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