Books in the Critical Issues in Crime and Society series

Documents the disproportionate representation of black Americans in the US criminal justice system. This book brings together twelve original essays by prominent scholars to examine not only the discrimination that is evident, but also the structural and cultural forces that have influenced and continue to perpetuate the situation.

In the US, murderers, particularly those sentenced to death, are usually considered as entirely different from the rest of us. Sociologist Susan F. Sharp challenges perspective by reminding us that those facing a death sentence, in addition to being murderers, are brothers or sisters, mothers or fathers, daughters or sons.

Presents an analytical and historical study of the juvenile justice system. Focusing on social reformers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this work argues that the 'child savers' movement was not an effort to liberate and dignify youth but, instead, a punitive and intrusive attempt to control the lives of working-class urban adolescents.

Explores the counterterrorism-themed show ""24"", Rapture fiction, traffic control centers, security conferences, public housing, and gated communities, and examines how each manifests complex relationships of inequality, insecurity, and surveillance.

Provides a firsthand account of the changing nature of control efforts employed by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies when confronted with mass activism. Based on ethnographic research, and using an incisive theoretical framework, this title maps the use of legal, physical, and psychological approaches.

Documents the transition to adulthood for a particularly vulnerable population: young inner-city men of colour who have, by the age of eighteen, already been imprisoned. How do such precariously situated youth become adult men? What are the sources of change in their lives? Falling Back is based on over three years of ethnographic research with black and Latino males.

Explores the consequences of a juvenile justice system that is aimed at promoting change in the lives of young people, yet ultimately relies upon tools and strategies that enmesh them in a system that they struggle to move beyond. The system, rather than the crimes themselves, is the vice.

After decades of the American ""war on drugs"" and relentless prison expansion, political officials are finally challenging mass incarceration. Many point to an apparently promising solution to reduce the prison population: addiction treatment. In Addicted to Rehab, Allison McKim gives an in-depth and innovative ethnographic account of two such rehab programs for women.

Surveillance is not simply about monitoring or tracking individuals and their data - it is about the structuring of power relations through human, technical, or hybrid control mechanisms. This title gathers together some of the very best researchers studying surveillance and discipline in contemporary public schools.

Argues that the ""war on terror"" is a political charade that delivers illusory comfort, stokes fear, and produces scapegoats used as emotional relief. Drawing on topics such as the Abu Ghraib scandal, Guantanamo Bay, and the controversial Patriot Act, this work looks at the significance of knowledge, language, and emotion in a post-9/11 world.

An eye for an eye, the balance of scales - for centuries, these and other traditional concepts exemplified the public's perception of justice. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to this topic, and argues that common conceptions of criminal justice are too limited.

There is powerful evidence that the colonization of Indigenous people was and is a crime, and that that crime is on-going. The consequences of this oppression and criminal victimization is perhaps the critical factor explaining why Indigenous people today are overrepresented as victims and offenders in the settler colonist criminal justice systems.

Considers how those within the prison system negotiate their expectations about "real" men and "good" fathers, how prisoners negotiate their relationships with those outside of prison, and in what ways this negotiation reflects their understanding of masculinity.

The 1990s witnessed a flurry of legislative initiatives designed to control a population of sex offenders (child abusers) widely reviled as sick, evil, and incurable. In Sex Offenders, Stigma, and Social Control, Diana Rickard provides the reader with an in-depth view of six such men, exploring how they manage to cope with their highly stigmatized role as social outcasts.

Examines the lives of young people who spent considerable time in and out of correctional institutions as adolescents. This book narrates the day-to-day experiences of these young men and women, focusing on their attempts to surmount the challenges of adulthood, resisting a return to criminal activity, and formulating long-term goals for a secure adult future.

Examines the policing, and broader political repression, of the Occupy Oakland movement during the fall of 2011 through the spring of 2012. Mike King's active and daily participation in that movement, from its inception through its demise, provides a unique insider perspective to illustrate how the Oakland police and city administrators lost the ability to effectively control the movement.

Based on five years of ethnography, archival research, census data analysis, and interviews, Police, Power, and the Production of Racial Boundaries reveals how the LAPD, city prosecutors, and business owners struggled to control who should be considered "dangerous" and how they should be policed in Los Angeles.