About the Authors

Eamonn Carrabine is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex. He has published in three broad areas: the sociology of imprisonment, youth culture and theoretical criminology. The first draws on his research in the sociology of imprisonment and includes (with Brian Longhurst) 'Gender and Prison Organisation: Some Comments on Masculinities and Prison Management' in The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice (1988). His book Power, Discourse and Resistance: A Genealogy of the Strangeways Prison Riot is in preparation. He is also contributing to a forthcoming Encyclopedia of Prisons and Correctional Facililities.

Paul Iganski is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex. He trained and worked as a psychiatric nurse in Cheshire and the community before enrolling at university as a mature student. His main areas of research are hate, violence, rights, racial stratification and equal opportunities. Since 1998 he has been a Visiting Scholar at the Brudnick Center for the Study of Conflict and Violence at Northeastern University, Boston. In 2000 he was appointed Civil Society Fellow of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.

Maggy Lee is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex. She worked as a criminal justice researcher at the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence and lectured at Birkbeck College, University of London, from 1992 to 1996 before joining the Department of Sociology, University of Essex. Her main areas of research are policing, drug policy and enforcement, juvenile delinquency, migration and human rights. Recent publications include Youth, Crime and Police Work (1998), Crime in Modern Britain (2002) with Eamonn Carrabine, Pamela Cox and Nigel South, all in the department at Essex, and 'Drugs policing' (with Nigel South) in T. Newburn (ed.) Handbook of Policing (2003).

Ken Plummer is Professor of Sociology and Head of the Department of Sociology, University of Essex, and a Visiting Professor of Sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. His main teaching interests are in areas of social psychology, sexuality, crime and stigma, and introductory sociology. He has published prolifically, including Sexual Stigma (1975), Documents of Life (1983), Telling Sexual Stories (1995), The Making of the Modern Homosexual (1981), Modern Homosexualities (1992), Symbolic Interactionism (1990), The Chicago School (Routledge, 1997, 4 vols), Documents of Life - 2: An Invitation to a Critical Humanism (2001) and Sexualities: Critical Assessments (2002).

Nigel South is Professor in the Department of Sociology and Research Professor in the Department of Health and Human Sciences at Essex University. He has taught at various universities in London and New York, and between 1981 and 1990 worked as a Research Sociologist at the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence in London. His current research interests include inter-agency initiatives across the health, welfare and criminal justice systems, drug prevention initiatives, environmental health and environmental crime; crime, social order and policy in Britain and, comparatively, drug distribution and controls in Britain, wider Europe and North America; and theoretical and comparative criminology. His recent books include Youth, Crime, Deviance and Delinquency (ed.) (1999), Crime in Modern Britain (co-author) (2000), Drugs, Cultures, Controls and Everyday Life (ed.) (1999) and The New European Criminology (co-editor P. Bierne; Routledge, 1998).