Crime, Justice, and Social Control

Crime, Justice, and Social Control explores formal and informal dimensions of social control and demonstrates that law and the criminal justice system are set within the wider context of social control. Combining theory with key policy issues, the text addresses the challenges facing criminal justice practitioners, researchers, and elected officials.

Part I outlines the origins and types of social control from a sociological perspective. Parts II through V build on these foundational theories by further exploring adjudication and sentencing, policing and investigations, and correctional policies and issues. Each section raises key questions under discussion by academics, policymakers, and elected officials, and helps students understand the complexity and range of challenges faced by those involved in the criminal justice process.

The revised second edition features readings on the topics of moral panics, undocumented persons and border policing, private and public policing, racial profiling, wrongful convictions, mass incarceration, prisoner reentry, and the criminalization of school discipline in the United States.

Crime, Justice, and Social Control is suitable for introductory courses in criminal justice, as well as courses in social control and criminal justice policy.