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
White Collar Crime, first published in 1949, is considered a groundbreaking work in criminology. In this study, Edwin H. Sutherland not only coined the term “white collar crime” but also expanded the definition of crime to include offenses committed by upper-class individuals in the context of their professional roles. He criticized the prevailing criminological focus
With his essay “Social Structure and Anomie”, published in 1949 in the volume Social Theory and Social Structure, Robert K. Merton presented a key text of modern sociology. The essay first appeared in 1938 in the American Sociological Review, but is best known from its extensively revised versions in Merton’s Social Theory and Social Structure
Anomie theories — frequently subsumed under the broader category of strain theories — are concerned with explaining why violations of social norms and deviant behavior exhibit systematic variations across societies and historical periods. These theories examine the relationship between crime and the structural organization of society, positing that deviance emerges as an adaptive response to
Travis Hirschi’s Social Bonds Theory (1969) is one of the most influential control theories in criminology. Rather than asking why people commit crime, Hirschi asks why they conform to rules at all. He argues that human beings have a natural tendency toward deviance, and that conformity results from effective social control rooted in strong social