Criminological Imagination [Hardcover]

For the last three decades Jock Young's work has had a profound impact on criminology. Yet, in this provocative new book, Young rejects much of what criminology has become, criticizing the rigid determinism and rampant positivism that dominate the discipline today. His erudite and entertaining examination of what's gone wrong with criminology draws on a range of research - from urban ethnography to sexology and criminal victimization studies - to illustrate its failings.

At the same time, Young makes a passionate case for a return to criminology's creative and critical potential, partly informed by the new developments in cultural criminology. A late-modern counterpart to C.Wright Mills's classic The Sociological Imagination, this inspirational piece of writing from one of the most brilliant voices in contemporary criminology will command widespread attention. It will be essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of criminology, and the social sciences more generally.

Introduction: The Legacy of C. Wright Mills
1. Closing Down the Imagination
2. Measurement and the Sexologists
3. Amnesia and the Art of Skating on Thin Ice
4. The Bogus of Positivism
5. The Loosening of the Moorings: The Emergence of Cultural Criminology
6. Giuliani and the New York Miracle
7. Magic, Mayhem and Margaret Mead: Towards a Critical Ethnography
8. Subcultures as Magic: Problems of Urban Ethnography
9. Dangerous Knowledge and the Politics of the Imagination
10. Rescuing the Imagination Great teachers like Young translate between cultural forms and fields of knowledge.
Kriminologisches Journal

'The terms criminology and imagination do not naturally belong together. Jock Young's singular achievement is to apply a fine criminological imagination , exposing the soulƒ"