The Culture of Control

Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society

Professor of Law David Garland

328 pages | 234x156mm

978-0-19-925802-4 | Paperback | 26 September 2002

Also available as: Hardback

Price: £23.00

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This is a modern classic of criminological theory, available in paperback for the first time
Makes a substantive and original contribution to the fields of criminology and criminal justice, sociology, and the law and society
Will become a central point of reference for scholarship and teaching covering a wide range of criminological specialisms
David Garland is the world's leading academic criminologist

The Culture of Control charts the dramatic changes in crime control and criminal justice that have occurred in Britain and America over the last 25 years. It then explains these transformations by showing how the social organization of late modern society has prompted a series of political and cultural adaptations that alter how governments and citizens think and act in relation to crime.

The book presents an original and in-depth analysis of contemporary crime control, revealing its underlying logics and rationalities, and identifying the social relations and cultural sensibilities that have produced this new culture of control.

In developing a "history of the present" in the field of crime control, David Garland presents an intertwined history of the welfare state and the criminal justice state, a theory of social and penal change, and an account of how social order is constructed in late modern societies. Drawing on extensive research in the UK and the USA, he shows in detail how the social, economic and cultural forces of the late 20th century have reshaped criminological thought, public policy, and the cultural meaning of crime and criminals.

The Culture of Control explains how our responses to crime and our sense of criminal justice came to be so dramatically reconfigured at the end of the 20th century. The shifting policies of crime and punishment, welfare and security - and the changing class, race and gender relations that underpin them - are viewed as aspects of the problem of governing late modern society and creating social order in a rapidly changing social world. Its theoretical scope, empirical range and interpretative insight make this book an indispensable guide to one of the central issues of our time.

Readership: academics and students of criminology, criminal law, legal and social theory, those in the private security industry and prisons.

The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.

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Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society

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