What is Criminology?

Mary Bosworth joined the Oxford Centre for Criminology in 2006. Her major research interests are in punishment, incarceration and immigration detention with a particular focus on how matters of race, gender and citizenship shape the experience and nature of confinement. Carolyn Hoyle has been at the Oxford Centre for Criminology since 1991. She has published empirical and theoretical research on a number of criminological topics including policing, domestic violence, restorative justice and the death penalty.

... an undoubted success - and will, I am certain, stimulate further debate and reflection in moving towards a range of criminological futures.

• Preface: John Braithwaite ; Introduction ; PART I CRIMINOLOGY AND ITS CONSTITUENCIES ; 1. CONCEPTUAL ALLEGIANCES: WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON? ; 1. Criminology's Public Roles: A Drama in Six Acts ; 2. Some Advantages of a Crime-Free Criminology ; 3. Critical Criminology: The Renewal of Theory Politics and Practice ; 4. Disciplinarity and Drift ; 5. The Global Financial Crisis: Neo-Liberalism, Social Democracy and Criminology ; 6. Against Evangelism in Academic Criminology: For Criminology as a Scientific Art ; 2. METHODOLOGICAL ALLEGIANCES: HOW SHOULD CRIMINOLOGY BE DONE? ; 7. Shake it up Baby: Practicing Rock 'n' Roll Criminology ; 8. Criminology's Disney World: The Ethnographer's Ride of South African Criminal Justice ; 9. Origins of Criminology ; 10. He was a Woman: Pitfalls and Possibilities of Popular Audiences ; 11. Sort Crimes, Not Criminals ; 12. Studying Desistance from Crime: Where Quantitative Meets Qualitative Methods ; 13. Criminology and the Role of Experimental Research ; 3. POLITICAL ALLEGIANCES: WHAT IS CRIMINOLOGY FOR? ; 14. Criminology and Social Justice: Expanding the Intellectual Commitment ; 15. A New Look at Victim and Offender - An Abolitionist Approach ; 16. Remembering Criminology's 'Forgotten Theme': Seeking Justice in U.S. Crime Policy Using an Intersectional Approach ; 17. Postcolonial Perspectives for Criminology ; PART II CRIMINOLOGY AND ITS BORDERS ; 1. THE LIMITS OF THE DISCIPLINE: WHERE DO WE DRAW THE LINE? ; 18. Putting Crime Back on the Criminological Agenda ; 19. Transcending the Boundaries of Criminology: The Example of Richard Ericson ; 20. Criminology's Place in the Academic Field ; 21. Why Can't Criminology Be More Like Medical Research?: Be Careful What You Wish For ; 22. Criminal Justice, Not Criminology? ; 23. Criminology, Accountability and International Justice ; 2. THE LIMITS OF GEOGRAPHY: DOES CRIMINOLOGY TRAVEL? ; 24. Transnational Criminology and the Globalization of Harm Production ; 25. The Missing Link: Criminological Perspectives on Dealing with the Past ; 26. Why Compare Criminal Justice? ; 27. Visions of Global Control: Cosmopolitan Aspirations in a World of Friction ; 3. THE LIMITS OF THE ACADEMY: WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF CRIMINOLOGY? ; 28. Criminology as Invention ; 29. Criminological Cliques: Narrowing Dialogues, Institutional Protectionism, and the Next Generation ; 30. Official Criminology and the New Crime Sciences ; 31. Criminology: Science and Policy Analysis ; 32. Criminology, Bureaucracy and Unfinished Business ; 33. Criminology and Government: Some reflections on Recent Developments in England ; 34. Being a Criminologist: Investigation as a Lifestyle and Living ; Conclusion