Masculinities, Crime and Criminology

In recent years the relationship between men, masculinity and crime has assumed increasing visibility and political significance within both the academic discipline of criminiology and public arena. This text provides a reading of issues which are central to the questions which have arisen: Why is crime so overwhelmingly an activity conducted by men? Is crime a "masculine" phenomenon? The author explores a number of high-profile events and debates around crime, criminal justice and social (dis)order and examines recent criminological, media and political interpretations of the relationship between men, masculinities and crime. Rejecting the widely held idea that masculinity is "in crisis", the book presents an alternative approach to theorizing the "maleness" of crime and calls for a reappraisal of the conceptual tools with which the relationship between masculinities and crime has traditionally been understood. Drawing on the ideas of corporeality, sexed subjectivity and the materiality of men's crimes, the author focuses on the sexed bodies and subjectivities of men - as offenders, victims, agents working within the criminal justice system and as criminologists seeking to explain crime.