Sociology & Criminology for a Changing World
Serial murder fascinates, terrifies—and has dominated pop culture for years: Netflix documentaries like Monster: The Ed Gein Story or Dahmer break viewership records, while podcasts and true-crime formats attract millions. But beyond media sensationalism, what lies behind the phenomenon of serial killing? This article offers a criminological-sociological approach to one of the most extreme forms
The Exclusive Society: Social Exclusion, Crime and Difference in Late Modernity (1999) is a foundational work of late modern criminology by British sociologist and criminologist Jock Young. In this influential book, Young links rising crime rates and moral panics to processes of social exclusion, insecurity, and inequality in advanced capitalist societies. Challenging both leftist optimism
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
Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order (1978) by Stuart Hall and his co-authors is a groundbreaking work in critical criminology and cultural studies. In their analysis of the “mugging” discourse in 1970s Britain, the authors compellingly demonstrate how crime operates as a social construct—politically manufactured, amplified by the media, and ideologically
Cultural Criminology is not a single, unified theory of crime, but rather a critical perspective and research tradition. Emerging in the 1990s, it examines crime and crime control as cultural practices, focusing on how meaning, symbolism, style, and representation shape criminal subcultures, law enforcement, media narratives, and social reactions. It draws heavily on Cultural Studies,