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This volume in the series Sociology of crime, law, and deviance edited by Mathieu Deflem addresses contemporary issues of policing with a focus on the characteristics of police power as a coercive force in society and its continued need for legitimacy in a democratic social order. The book brings scholars together to discuss a variety of important topics concerning police and policing. Developments and problems associated with police power are at the very front of current public debate. In the broader constellation of the culture of modern crime control, police institutions enjoy a privileged status. Continued developments in technology and surveillance have affected policing as have continued and new crime problems. Not least of all, of course, the legitimacy of policing has recently been questioned because of several highly-publicized incidents involving police violence. The chapters in this book provide clarification on these and related aspects of police and policing in society. This collection is valuable for students and scholars in sociology, criminology, law, political science, and public policy.

Rates of crime for Blacks in the United States in the post-slavery era have always been high relative to Whites. But explaining, or minimizing, this fact faces a major problem: individual excuses for bad acts point to deficiencies, in the agent, which are perhaps forgivable, such as mental deficiency or a deprived childhood, but at the price of treating the agent as less than a full member of the moral community. Collectivizing excuses risks implying group inferiority. The history of attempts to provide an explanation of crime that mitigates blame without undermining full participation to the moral community is long and convoluted, leading to the presently widespread claim that crime is itself a product of victimization through pervasive racism. Three basic strategies – rejection of comparison, attribution to racially invariant causes and explanation by reference to uniquely Black conditions, such as subculture or extreme stigmatization – are identified and their ethical implications distinguished.

This volume presents recent insights in the sociological study of surveillance and governance in the context of criminal justice and other control strategies. The chapters provide a varied set of theoretical perspectives and substantive research domains on the qualities and quantities of some of the most recent transformations of social control as well as their historical precursors in diverse social settings. The contributors to this volume testify to the increasing relevance of surveillance and governance across the globe as well as the cross-national study thereof. Among the central issues discussed is the relationship between state and non-state mechanisms of surveillance. Moreover, many of the new technologies that a decade ago led to analytical reflections of the highest order today have become banal in their everyday application and routine diffusion. What can sociologists intelligently say about these developments in both empirical and theoretical respects? Creatively exploring many facets of the broader constellation of contemporary surveillance and governance strategies with respect to both crime control and related developments, the contributors of this volume offer provocative and thoughtful reflections that will stimulate our theoretical thinking about relevant issues.This is a contemporary study of surveillance and governance. It includes contributions from an international group of leading scholars.

"Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance" is an annual series of volumes that publishes scholarly work in criminology and criminal justice studies, sociology of law, and the sociology of deviance. Each volume revolves around one central theme in any of these areas, broadly defined. Showcasing a diversity of methodological approaches, work published in the series includes theoretical contributions, critical reviews of literature, empirical research, and methodological innovations

Conferences, lectures, funding opportunities, and publications now all fully embrace terrorism and counter-terrorism as topics worthy of serious reflection and investigation among criminologists. The papers in this volume bring out the distinct contribution criminologists and criminological sociologists have to offer in the study of counter-terrorism from theoretical, methodological, and substantive viewpoints. The discussions of this title include a usefully broad variety of themes, including conceptual and theoretical perspectives in the criminology of terrorism; hate crimes and terrorism; civil liberties and the control of terrorism; terrorism, war and crime; state crime and terrorism; terrorism and transnational crime; the police dimensions of counter-terrorism; terrorism and the (international) court; terrorism and punishment; and, other issues. The specific criminological orientation of the book makes this volume stand out among others. Bringing together distinguished scholars to present these various themes, the volume hopes to bring a comprehensive and insightful state-of-the-art overview of terrorism and counter-terrorism as themes of criminological reflection.

This article is a study on life trajectories and changes of the self of one single person, following the transformation processes that occurred in Rio de Janeiro's favelas during the last two decades and focusing on the relationship between Evangelicals and drug traffickers. Based on an ethnography of almost two years in Cidade de Deus favela, the trajectory of a single individual, a former drug dealer and a crack addict who switched between the church and the traffic throughout the fieldwork process, is presented in what can be called sociology of intimate troubles or sociology of self-inquiry, that is, a methodology that aims to capture the actors through their problems.

This volume contains contributions on the theme of popular culture, crime, and social control. The chapters in this volume tease out various criminologically relevant issues, pertaining to crime/deviance and/or the control thereof, on the basis of an analysis of various aspects and manifestations of popular culture, including music, movies, television, paintings, sculptures, photographs, cartoons, and the internet-based audio-visual materials that are presently available. Thematically diverse within the province of criminology, the chapters in this book are not restricted in terms of theoretical approach and methodological orientation. Using a variety of methodological and theoretical perspectives, the volume is diverse in addressing dimensions of popular culture in relation to important criminological questions.