Sociology & Criminology for a Changing World
Narrative Criminology is a comparatively recent criminological approach that focuses on the stories about crime people tell themselves and others in order to explain, justify, or even make possible their (deviant) behavior. Rather than centering on the objective act itself, Narrative Criminology emphasizes its subjective interpretation and meaning. Crime is understood as a narrative construction
Symbolic interactionism is a micro-sociological paradigm that understands social reality as the outcome of symbolically mediated processes of interaction. Society does not primarily emerge from supra-individual structures or functional systems, but from the meaning-making activities of actors in everyday life. At the center lies the guiding question: How does social reality emerge through interaction? The
Sociological theories do not primarily differ in their subject matter, but in how they respond to fundamental problems of social order. They address, in different ways, how society is possible, how stability is maintained, how power operates—and what role individuals play within these processes. At the core are recurring axes of tension: Structure vs. agency
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
The Social Organization of Juvenile Justice (1968) by Aaron V. Cicourel is a groundbreaking study that reveals how juvenile delinquency is socially constructed within the everyday practices of legal and welfare institutions. Rooted in the traditions of ethnomethodology and symbolic interactionism, Cicourel demonstrates that youth crime is not an objective reality but the product of