Controlling Crime, Controlling Society

How did anxieties about crime and deviance emerge in the modernworld, first in Europe and then in America? How did they come tooccupy centre-stage in the ongoing drama played out in publicdiscourse? And how have theories of crime and deviance related tothe actual practices of social control and punishment, and to themain currents of social conflict?
In this illuminating new book, Dario Melossi addresses thesecrucial questions, and at the same time offers an engaging surveyof the theories of social control, crime and deviance. From theearly work of Beccaria and Lombroso, via the pioneering sociologyof 1920s Chicago, to 60s radicalism and the subsequent emergence ofa "culture of fear", the book covers the full range oftheoretical thinking in this area, including more recentassessments of mass imprisonment in post-9/11 America. In a sharpand lucid style, Melossi argues that two orientations have alwaysbeen battling each other in society, one in which the control ofcrime is paramount, and the other in which controlling crimebecomes secondary to the exercise of wider social control.
Conceived and written by a scholar who has been active for manyyears both in Europe and the United States, the text will be aninvaluable aid to advanced students and scholars of sociology andcriminology on both sides of the Atlantic.