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Crime, community and morality

Green, Simon

Authors

Profile image of Simon Green

Professor Simon Green S.T.Green@hull.ac.uk
Professor of Criminology & Victimology / Senior Researcher in Modern Slavery, Wilberforce Institute



Abstract

Political leaders and the popular press tell us that society is in the grip of a moral crisis. ‘Where have our values gone?’ our newspapers scream at us. ‘Benefit scroungers’, ‘greedy bankers’, ‘intrusive journalists’, ‘have-a-go rioters’, political scandals and criminals of all shapes and sizes are continually cited as evidence that we live in a modern-day Gomorrah. Criminologists have studied this in several ways, including: media representations of crime, mass incarceration, hooliganism and the exercise of power and control through communities.

What criminologists have not studied is the place of morality in shaping public debate about understanding crime and how this then shapes crime control strategies. Rather than dismiss statements about community breakdown, ‘broken society’ and irresponsibility as ideological, self-justificatory rhetoric, what happens when we take these claims seriously? What do they tell us about the causes of crime? How do they shape the crime control agenda? How else might we begin to understand and explain the relationship between crime and society?

Navigating between criminological concerns about control and governance and social theories about culture and identity, this book explores what is meant by crime, community and morality and puts this meaning to the test. Discussion of a new theory of rule-breaking, combined with an analysis of how our justice system is becoming maladapted, makes this essential reading for criminologists around the globe, as well as those general readers interested in the causes of crime.

Citation

Green, S. (2014). Crime, community and morality. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203101902

Publication Date Mar 27, 2014
Deposit Date Jun 5, 2019
Publisher Routledge
Series Title Routledge studies in crime and society
Series Number 9
Book Title Crime, Community and Morality
ISBN 9780203101902
DOI https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203101902
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/1944895
Publisher URL https://www.crcpress.com/Crime-Community-and-Morality/Green/p/book/9781138120310