Masculinities, Crime and Criminology

Is crime a "masculine" phenomenon? Why is crime so overwhelmingly an activity conducted by men? In seeking to answer these questions by exploring a series of high-profile events and debates surrounding crime, criminal justice, and social (dis)order, Richard Collier examines recent criminological, media, and political interpretations of the relationship between men, masculinities, and crime. Rejecting the widely held idea that masculinity is "in crisis," this book presents an alternative approach to theorizing the "maleness" of crime and calls for a reappraisal of the conceptual tools with which the relationship between masculinities and crime has traditionally been understood. Drawing on the ideas of corporeality, sexed subjectivity, and the materiality of menÆs crimes, the author focuses on the sexed bodies and subjectivities of men--as offenders, victims, agents working within the criminal justice system, and criminologists seeking to explain crime. Highlighting the limitations of the concept of masculinity, Masculinities, Crime, and Criminology calls for a reassessment of the crimes of men based on a critical re-focusing on questions of heterosexuality, childhood, the family, and the "social."