1st Edition

Crime, Criminal Justice and Masculinities

Edited By Stephen Tomsen Copyright 2008

    This volume features the leading contemporary articles that are part of, or related to, the 'new masculinities' approach in this sphere. These comprise an impressive range of theoretical and empirical work including important cultural and ethnographic analyses. They emphasise the relationship between masculinities, the causes and patterns of most criminal offending and victimisation and the broader workings of the wider criminal justice system of policing (public and private), criminal courts, corrections and prisons. All of the material has been selected from flagship international journals and was produced by a global mix of male and female researchers with diverse disciplinary backgrounds. These scholars share the view that masculinities are plural, socially constructed, reproduced in the collective social practices of different men and embedded in institutional and occupational settings. Furthermore, masculinities are intricately linked with social struggles for power that occur between men and women and different men. Crime, criminal justice and their cultural representation are key terrain for these masculine contests and are always overlain with issues such as social class, age, race/ethnicity and sexuality.

    Contents: Series preface; Introduction; Part I Theoretical Perspectives: Daubing the drudges of fury: men, violence, and the piety of the 'hegemonic masculinity' thesis, Steve Hall; Subordinating hegemonic masculinity, Tony Jefferson; On hegemonic masculinity and violence: response to Jefferson and Hall, R.W. Connell; Making bodies matter: adolescent masculinities, the body and varieties of violence, James W. Messerschmidt; After Dunblane: crime, corporeality and the (hetero-)sexing of the bodies of men, Richard Collier. Part II The Spectrum of Masculine Crime: Culture, masculinities and violence against women, Joachim Kersten; Assault on men: masculinity and male victimization, Elizabeth A. Stanko and Kathy Hobdell; Enacting masculinity: anti-gay violence and group rape as participatory theater, Karen Franklin; Situational construction of masculinity among male street thieves, Heith Copes and Andy Hochstetler; Managing to kill: masculinities and the space shuttle Challenger explosion, James W. Messerschmidt; Criminal careers, desistance and subjectivity: interpreting men's narratives of change, David Gadd and Stephen Farrell. Part III Cultural and Ethnographic Analyses: Masculinity and heroism in the Hollywood 'blockbuster': the culture industry and contemporary images of crime and law, Richard Sparkes; In search of the high life: drugs, crime, masculinities and consumption, Mike Collison; In search of masculinity: violence, respect and sexuality among Puerto Rican crack dealers in East Harlem, Philippe Bourgois; 'Boozers and bouncers': masculine conflict, disengagement and the contemporary governance of drinking-related violence and disorder, Stephen Tomsen; Hard men, shop boys and others: embodying competence in a masculinist occupation, Lee F. Monaghan; 'Ducktails, flick-knives and pugnacity': subcultural and hegemonic masculinities in South Africa, 1948-1960, Katie Mooney. Part IV Criminal Justice Settings: 'There oughtta be a law against bitches': masculinit

    Biography

    Stephen Tomsen is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice in the School of Social Sciences, University of Western Sydney, Australia.