C Wright Mills And The Criminological Imagination

In spite of its widespread use within criminology, the term ’criminological imagination’, as derived from C. Wright Mills’ classic The Sociological Imagination, has yet to be fully developed and clarified as an analytic concept capable of guiding theorizing or empirical enquiry. This volume, with a preface by Elliot Currie, engages with and reflects on this concept, exploring C. Wright Mills’ work for criminological enquiry. Bringing together the latest work of leading scholars in the fields of criminology and sociology from around the world, C. Wright Mills and the Criminological Imagination investigates the emergence and lineage of a criminological concept indebted to Mills’ thought, adapting and applying it to a specifically criminological context. With attention to theoretical concerns and, as well as the application of the criminological imagination in concrete empirical research, this volume sheds new light on the methodological and analytical aspects of the criminological imagination as a multifaceted concept and explores the possibilities that it offers for the emergence of an imaginative criminological practice. As such, it will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in sociology and social theory, criminology, criminal justice studies, law and research methods.

C. Wright Mills and the Criminological Imagination investigates the emergence and lineage of a criminological concept indebted to Mills' thought, adapting and applying it to a specifically criminological context. With attention to theoretical concerns, as well as the application of the criminological imagination in concrete empirical research, this volume sheds new light on the methodological and analytical aspects of the criminological imagination as a multifaceted concept, exploring the possibilities that it offers for the emergence of an imaginative criminological practice.

For the last three decades Jock Young's work has had a profound impact on criminology. Yet, in this provocative new book, Young rejects much of what criminology has become, criticizing the rigid determinism and rampant positivism that dominate the discipline today. His erudite and entertaining examination of what's gone wrong with criminology draws on a range of research - from urban ethnography to sexology and criminal victimization studies - to illustrate its failings. At the same time, Young makes a passionate case for a return to criminology's creative and critical potential, partly informed by the new developments in cultural criminology. A late-modern counterpart to C.Wright Mills's classic The Sociological Imagination, this inspirational piece of writing from one of the most brilliant voices in contemporary criminology will command widespread attention. It will be essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of criminology, and the social sciences more generally.

For the last three decades Jock Young's work has had a profound impact on criminology. Yet, in this provocative new book, Young rejects much of what criminology has become, criticizing the rigid determinism and rampant positivism that dominate the discipline today. His erudite and entertaining examination of what's gone wrong with criminology draws on a range of research - from urban ethnography to sexology and criminal victimization studies - to illustrate its failings. At the same time, Young makes a passionate case for a return to criminology's creative and critical potential, partly informed by the new developments in cultural criminology. A late-modern counterpart to C.Wright Mills's classic The Sociological Imagination, this inspirational piece of writing from one of the most brilliant voices in contemporary criminology will command widespread attention. It will be essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of criminology, and the social sciences more generally.

Randol Contreras came of age in the South Bronx during the 1980s, a time when the community was devastated by cuts in social services, a rise in arson and abandonment, and the rise of crack-cocaine. For this riveting book, he returns to the South Bronx with a sociological eye and provides an unprecedented insiderÕs look at the workings of a group of Dominican drug robbers. Known on the streets as ÒStickup Kids,Ó these men raided and brutally tortured drug dealers storing large amounts of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and cash. As a participant observer, Randol Contreras offers both a personal and theoretical account for the rise of the Stickup Kids and their violence. He mainly focuses on the lives of neighborhood friends, who went from being crack dealers to drug robbers once their lucrative crack market opportunities disappeared. The result is a stunning, vivid, on-the-ground ethnographic description of a drug robberyÕs violence, the drug market high life, the criminal life course, and the eventual pain and suffering experienced by the casualties of the Crack Era. Provocative and eye-opening, The Stickup Kids urges us to explore the ravages of the drug trade through weaving history, biography, social structure, and drug market forces. It offers a revelatory explanation for drug market violence by masterfully uncovering the hidden social forces that produce violent and self-destructive individuals. Part memoir, part penetrating analysis, this book is engaging, personal, deeply informed, and entirely absorbing.

The Routledge International Handbook of C. Wright Mills Studies brings together leading scholars of the work of radical sociologist C. Wright Mills to showcase its impact across the social sciences. Showing how Mills’ thought can be taken up - and in some cases, sympathetically reformulated - to tackle problems of power and politics, it presents an authoritative state-of-the-art overview of Mills’ groundbreaking ideas and his far-reaching theoretical and methodological impact. Crucially, the volume also illustrates the value of thinking with Mills in addressing the complexities of contemporary capitalist democracies. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology, organization studies, peace and conflict studies, criminology, politics and public administration.

This book sets an agenda for the development of historical approaches to criminology. It defines ‘historical criminology’, explores its characteristic strengths and limitations, and considers its potential to enhance, revise and fundamentally challenge dominant modes of thinking about crime and social responses to crime. It considers the following questions: What is historical criminology? What does thinking historically about crime and justice entail? How is historical criminology currently practised? What are the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to historical criminology? How can historical criminology reshape understandings of crime and social responses to crime? How does thinking historically bear upon major theoretical, conceptual and methodological questions in criminological research? What does thinking historically have to offer criminological scholarship more broadly, and the uses of criminology in the public realm? In this book, Churchill, Yeomans and Channing situate ‘historical thinking’ at the heart of historical criminology, reveal the value of historical research to criminology and argue that criminologists across the field have much to gain from engaging in historical thinking in a more regular and sustained way. This book is essential reading for all criminologists, as well as students taking courses on theories, concepts and methods in criminology.