Sociology & Criminology for a Changing World
With Tearing Down the Streets, American sociologist and criminologist Jeff Ferrell published a work in 2001 that is exemplary of Cultural Criminology. In this book, Ferrell examines how urban spaces are transformed into zones of conflict through practices like graffiti, skateboarding, and punk music—spaces where state control, economic interests, and subcultural resistance collide. The book
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,
Delinquency and Drift by David Matza (1964) represents a landmark critique of both positivist criminology (e.g., Lombroso) and contemporary theories of juvenile delinquency like Cloward & Ohlin’s differential opportunity theory and Cohen’s subcultural theory. Matza challenges the behavioral determinism in these approaches and argues instead for a nuanced, interactionist understanding of delinquency as a temporary,