Sociology & Criminology for a Changing World
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 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
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
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