A Sociology of Crime

Designed as an alternative to conventional texts on criminology, "A Sociology of Crime" departs from the traditional concern with criminal behaviour and its causes to emphasize the socially constructed nature of crime. Taking a perspective from radical sociology, Stephen Hester and Peter Elgin argue that crime is a product of social processes which identify certain acts and persons as criminal. In their exploration of this theme, Hester and Elgin use three leading approaches in contemporary sociological theory - ethnomethodology, symbolic interactionism, and structural conflict theory. They apply each of these methods to a detailed study of the anatomy of crime, at the same time reviewing other main criminological perspectives on both sides of the Atlantic, including the feminist one. They focus on three main topics: making crime by making criminal law; making crime by enforcing criminal law; and making crime by the administration of criminal justice in the courts. International in outlook, "A Sociology of Crime" contains material from the USA, Britain and Canada which is closely linked to the theoretical approaches discussed. This book should be of interest to undergraduates and postgraduates in criminology and sociology.

ISBN 0415073693   DEWEY edition DC20 ISBN13 9780415073691 (What's this?)   Pages 272 Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd   Weight (grammes) 431 Imprint Routledge   Published in London Format Hardback   Height (mm) 216 Publication date 06 Aug 1992   Width (mm) 138 Library of Congress HM210.H47   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate DEWEY 364

		Preface
1		Sociology and crime		1
2		Constructing criminal law		27
3		Criminalization and domination		47
4		Ethnomethodology's law		71
5		Policing as symbolic interaction		91
6		The ethnomethodology of policing		117
7		The political economy of policing		141
8		Discipline, domination and criminal justice		166
9		Justice and symbolic interaction		189
10		Ethnomethodology in court		208
11		Crime and punishment		230
12		The functions of crime control		258
		Bibliography		272
		Name index		294
		Subject index		298

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