"Explores government efforts to address social problems in the context of the criminal justice system"--

While crime, law, and punishment are subjects that have everyday meanings not very far from their academic representations, "social control" is one of those terms that appear in the sociological discourse without any corresponding everyday usage. This concept has a rather mixed lineage. "After September 11" has become a slogan that conveys all things to all people but carries some very specific implications on interrogation and civil liberties for the future of punishment and social control. The editors hold that the already pliable boundaries between ordinary and political crime will become more unstable; national and global considerations will come closer together; domestic crime control policies will be more influenced by interests of national security; measures to prevent and control international terrorism will cast their reach wider (to financial structures and ideological support); the movements of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers will be curtailed and criminalized; taken-for-granted human rights and civil liberties will be restricted. In the midst of these dramatic social changes, hardly anyone will notice the academic field of "punishment and social control" being drawn closer to political matters. Criminology is neither a "pure" academic discipline nor a profession that offers an applied body of knowledge to solve the crime problem. Its historical lineage has left an insistent tension between the drive to understand and the drive to be relevant. While the scope and orientation of this new second edition remain the same, in recognition of the continued growth and diversity of interest in punishment and social control, new chapters have been added and several original chapters have been updated and revised.

In Making Trouble, leading scholars in criminology, sociology, criminal justice, womens studies, and social history explore the mediated cultural dynamics that govern image construction and understanding of a wide range of contemporary controversies (for instance, drug dealing, freight train graffi ti, anti-abortion violence, etc.). Edited within unifying central themes such as "situated media"; the evolution of policing and social control; and the gendered construction of crime, deviance, and control, Making Trouble marks a signifi cant expansion within this field.

This ebook is a selective guide designed to help scholars and students of criminology find reliable sources of information by directing them to the best available scholarly materials in whatever form or format they appear from books, chapters, and journal articles to online archives, electronic data sets, and blogs. Written by a leading international authority on the subject, the ebook provides bibliographic information supported by direct recommendations about which sources to consult and editorial commentary to make it clear how the cited sources are interrelated related. A reader will discover, for instance, the most reliable introductions and overviews to the topic, and the most important publications on various areas of scholarly interest within this topic. In criminology, as in other disciplines, researchers at all levels are drowning in potentially useful scholarly information, and this guide has been created as a tool for cutting through that material to find the exact source you need. This ebook is a static version of an article from Oxford Bibliographies Online: Criminology, a dynamic, continuously updated, online resource designed to provide authoritative guidance through scholarship and other materials relevant to the study and practice of criminology. Oxford Bibliographies Online covers most subject disciplines within the social science and humanities, for more information visit www.aboutobo.com.

The Handbook of Social Control offers a comprehensive review of the concepts of social control in today's environment and focuses on the most relevant theories associated with social control. With contributions from noted experts in the field across 32 chapters, the depth and scope of the Handbook reflects the theoretical and methodological diversity that exists within the study of social control. Chapters explore various topics including: theoretical perspectives; institutions and organizations; law enforcement; criminal justice agencies; punishment and incarceration; surveillance; and global developments. This Handbook explores a variety of issues and themes on social control as being a central theme of criminological reflection. The text clearly demonstrates the rich heritage of the major relevant perspectives of social control and provides an overview of the most important theories and dimensions of social control today. Written for academics, undergraduate, and graduate students in the fields of criminology, criminal justice, and sociology, The Handbook of Social Control is an indispensable resource that explores a contemporary view of the concept of social control.

Control theories have dominated criminological theory and research since the 1969 publication of Hirschi's seminal work on the social bond. Social control and self-control theorists are unique in suggesting that patterns in criminal behaviors are better explained by variations in social constraints rather than by individual motivational impulses, thus indicating that their main concerns are the explication and clarification of the techniques, processes, and institutions of informal social control. The four major sections of this volume focus on: the similarities and differences among the major contributors to the early developmental stage of social control theory; the central importance of parents, peers, and schools in the creation of informal control mechanisms and their link to crime and delinquency; the theoretical underpinnings of self-control theory, including empirical tests and criticisms; and theoretical integrations of social control and self-control theories with various motivational theories of crime and delinquency.