Welcome to 'Snitch Culture,' a detailed analysis of how the growing surveillance of individuals has created a society far more insidious and pervasive than anything George Orwell ever imagined. Based primarily on the experience in the United States, but equally relevant to the United Kingdom and Europe, the book reveals the enormous energy, effort and money that is being put into creating a vast domestic intelligence network to track every man, woman and child. A fascinating insight into the world of 'big brother'.

An indispensable sampling of the vast assortment of publications which exist as an adjunct to the mainstream press, or which promote themes and ideas that may be defined as pop culture, alternative, underground or subversive. Updated and revised from the pages of the critically acclaimed Headpress journal, this is an enlightened and entertaining guide to the counter culture - including everything from cult film, music, comics and cutting-edge fiction, by way of its books and zines, with contact information accompanying each review.

Lines are clearly marked at South Bay High School. It’s mixed territory for the Crips and the Bloods, which means the drama never stops. Julia DiVino wants none of it. No colors, no C-Walks— it’s just not her thing. But when Eric Valienté jumps into her life, everything changes. Lines are redrawn. And then they’re crossed.

2010 Honorable Mention, Silver Gavel Award, American Bar Association Uncovers the powerful and problematic practice of snitching to reveal disturbing truths about how American justice works Albert Burrell spent thirteen years on death row for a murder he did not commit. Atlanta police killed 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston during a misguided raid on her home. After being released by Chicago prosecutors, Darryl Moore—drug dealer, hit man, and rapist—returned home to rape an eleven-year-old girl. Such tragedies are consequences of snitching—police and prosecutors offering deals to criminal offenders in exchange for information. Although it is nearly invisible to the public, criminal snitching has invaded the American legal system in risky and sometimes shocking ways. Snitching is the first comprehensive analysis of this powerful and problematic practice, in which informant deals generate unreliable evidence, allow criminals to escape punishment, endanger the innocent, compromise the integrity of police work, and exacerbate tension between police and poor urban residents. Driven by dozens of real-life stories and debacles, the book exposes the social destruction that snitching can cause in high-crime African American neighborhoods, and how using criminal informants renders our entire penal process more secretive and less fair. Natapoff also uncovers the far-reaching legal, political, and cultural significance of snitching: from the war on drugs to hip hop music, from the FBI’s mishandling of its murderous mafia informants to the new surge in white collar and terrorism informing. She explains how existing law functions and proposes new reforms. By delving into the secretive world of criminal informants, Snitching reveals deep and often disturbing truths about the way American justice really works.

Once viewed as an inevitable if unpleasant part of growing up, bullying is now recognized as a serious safety issue – particularly in light of recent teen suicides linked with homophobia in schools. In “Don’t Be So Gay!” Queers, Bullying, and Making Schools Safe, Donn Short considers the effectiveness of anti-harassment policies and safe school legislation. After spending several months interviewing queer youth and their allies in the Toronto area, Short concludes that current legislation and its approach to school safety and homophobia has generally been more responsive than proactive. He suggests that while effective legislation is vital to establishing a safe space for queer students, other influences – including religion, family beliefs, and peer pressure – may be more powerful. Drawing on students’ own experiences and exploring how their understandings and definitions of safety might be translated into policy reform, this book offers a fresh perspective on a hotly debated issue.

Presenting an analysis of modern-day extremism, this book explores how any group of people or participants in a movement--political, ideological, racial, ethnonational, religious, or issue-driven--can adopt extremist mindsets if they believe their existence or interests are threatened. Looking beyond "fringe" resistance groups already labeled as terrorists or subversives, the author examines conventional organizations--political parties, religious groups, corporations, interest groups, nation-states, police, and the military--that deploy extremist strategies to further their agendas. Dynamics of mutual causation process between dominant and resistant extremist groups are explored, including how resistant extremisms surface in response to oppressive and abusive measures advanced by the dominant groups to further their interests and maintain supremacy through systemic injustices, as happens in slavery, caste systems, patriarchy, colonialism, autocracy, exploitive capitalism, and discrimination against minorities.

One doesn't need to look far to find examples of contemporary locations of cultural opposition. Digital piracy, audio mashups, The Onion and Wikipedia are all examples of transgression in our current mediascape. And as digital age transgression becomes increasingly essential, it also becomes more difficult to define and protect. The contributions in this collection are organized into six sections that address the use of new technologies to alter existing cultural messages, the incorporation of technology and alternative media in transformation of everyday cultural practices and institutions, and the reuse and repurposing of technology to focus active political engagement and innovative social change. Bringing together a variety of scholars and case studies, Transgression 2.0 will be the first key resource for scholars and students interested in digital culture as a transformative intervention in the types, methods and significance of cultural politics.