Criminological Perspectives: Essential Readings

This revised and expanded Third Edition of the internationally acclaimed Criminological Perspectives is the most comprehensive reader available in the field. Wide-ranging and global in scope and coverage, Criminological Perspectives will enable you to critically engage with the various concepts and theoretical positions that you′ll encounter throughout your studies.

In addition to essays that have had a seminal influence on the development of criminology, new articles have been included to cover topics of contemporary criminological significance, including:

- surveillance

- digitized crime

- terrorism and political violence

- environmental crime

- human trafficking

- techno-social networks

- narco-crime

- global inequalities

The 56 articles are organised thematically, complete with introductions that place them in context and to illustrate the approaches taken by different schools of criminological thought.

Criminological Perspectives will prove an indispensible resource, whether you′re studying criminology, criminal justice studies, socio-legal studies, penology, security studies, surveillance studies, or sociology.

Eugene McLaughlin is Professor of Criminology and co-director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Research. He is also a member of the Centre for Law Justice and Journalism. He completed his postgraduate criminology studies at the University of Cambridge and the University of Sheffield. Eugene has held various academic appointments including at the University of Hong Kong, the Open University and the University of Southampton. He has also been Visiting Professor at the Department of Sociology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, the Department of Communication Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. He is an associate editor of Crime, Media and Cultureand is on the editorial board of Criminal Justice Matters. He has served on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Criminology, Critical Social Policy, the Howard Journal of Criminal Justice and was co-editor of Theoretical Criminology.


John Muncie is Emeritus Professor of Criminology at the Open University, UK. He is the author of Youth and Crime (5th edition, Sage, 2021), and he has published widely on issues in comparative youth justice and children’s rights, including the co-edited companion volumes Youth Crime and Justice and Comparative Youth Justice (Sage, 2006). He has produced numerous Open University texts and readers, including Crime: Local and Global (Willan, 2010), Criminal Justice: Local and Global (Willan, 2010), The Problem of Crime (2nd edition, Sage, 2001), Crime Prevention and Community Safety (Sage, 2001) and Imprisonment: European Perspectives (Harvester, 1991). He has also contributed nine volumes to the The Sage Library of Criminology (Sage, 2007–2009). He is co-editor of the Sage journal Youth Justice: An International Journal.