Controlling Crime, Controlling Society

Reviews / Votes

"I strongly recommend the book to students, teachers and researchers ... Melossi's reconnection of criminological theory with sociological, political and economic themes makes this book a 'must read'."
British Journal of Criminology

"Dario Melossi bestrides the worlds of American and European criminologies as few others can. He has been a key figure on both continents across three decades, and Controlling Crime, Controlling Society is his masterpiece. There are many overviews of the study of crime and society, but none that equals Melossi's grasp of primary sources or historical sensibility."
Richard Sparks, University of Edinburgh

"This is one of the most stimulating books on criminological thought I have read in a long time. The sociological reconstruction of modern American and European thought "brings to life" bodies of work that are too often treated as "dead", and illuminates why they mattered then and still matter today. Melossi offers an important reminder that to think about crime is also to think about the problem of social order. Criminology is bound up with reproducing and challenging dominant representations of the offender. This book is a real treat."
Ian Loader, University of Oxford

"Dario Melossi is to be congratulated on his stunning achievement. Controlling Crime, Controlling Society is a tour de force. This is an intellectual history of the concepts of deviance, social control, and the state in North America and Europe over the past two centuries that can profitably be read by criminologists, political scientists, sociologists, and historians. Indeed, it is a "must-read" for anyone interested in crime, deviance, social control, and the state - that is, most social scientists."
Malcolm Feeley, University of California, Berkeley