Understanding Deviance

• Authored by two distinguished criminologists who have written extensively on the theories that underpin much of current criminological thinking
• A detailed account of the major sociological theories of crime and deviance covering their development, recent research, and varying perspectives on their explanation of criminality
• Introduces key debates chronologically and deals admirably with the complexity of these, challenging readers to question assumptions and explore new avenues of scholarship
• An extensive bibliography provides readers with references not only the criminology classics, but also texts that are less well known and that reflect the authors' encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject

New to this edition

• Discussion of new studies in the areas of gang delinquency and subcultural theory, including some intense debates around the legacy of past theorising in the field
• Further commentary on post-modernism and the 'risk society'
• Assessment of how the different approaches address the lengthy fall in the crime rate across most democratic and developed societies

Readership: Undergraduate students on criminology degrees as well as those opting to study criminology on law or other social science degrees.

David Downes, Emeritus Professor of Social Administration and a member of the Mannheim Centre of Criminology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Paul Rock, Emeritus Professor of Sociology and a member of the Mannheim Centre of Criminology at the London School of Economics and Political Science

David Downes is Emeritus Professor of Social Administration and a member of the Mannheim Centre of Criminology at the London School of Economics and Political Science He is currently working on the causes, character and consequences of mass imprisonment in the USA, and on comparative trends in crime, inequality, the regulation of drug use, welfare services, and criminal justice.

Paul Rock is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and a member of the Mannheim Centre of Criminology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His interests focus on the development of criminal justice policies, particularly for victims of crime, but he has also published articles on criminological theory and the history of crime.

Review(s) from previous edition

"From a discipline that is replete with jargon, these authors manage to produce an accessible, elegantly written text which is not only of value to the new student but which will enable practitioners and policy makers to refresh and revitalise their theoretical understanding of crime and deviance. - Vista - Perspectives on Probation 2004

1: Confusion and diversity
2: Sources of knowledge about deviance
3: The University of Chicago Sociology Department
4: Functionalism, deviance, and control
5: Anomie
6: Culture and subculture
7: Symbolic interactionism
8: Phenomenology
9: Control theories
10: Radical criminology
11: Feminist criminology
12: Deviance theories and social policy
13: The metamorphosis and deviance?