In "Making Trouble" leading scholars in criminology, sociology, criminal justice, women's studies, and social history explore the mediated cultural dynamics that construct images and understanding of crime, deviance, and control. Contributors examine the intertwined practices of the mass media, criminal justice agencies, political power holders, and criminal and deviant subcultures in producing and consuming contested representations of legality and illegality. While the collection provides broad analysis of contemporary topics, it also weaves this analysis around a set of innovative and unifying themes. These include the emergence of "situated media" within and between the various subcultures of crime, deviance, and control; the evolution of policing and social control as complex webs of mediated and symbolic meaning; the role of power, identity, and indifference in framing contemporary crime controversies, with special attention paid to the gendered construction of crime, deviance and control; and the importance of historical and cross-cultural dynamics in shaping understandings of crime, deviance, and control.

First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 1993, Crimes of Style investigates the politics of culture and crime through an in-depth case study of graffiti in Denver and the official response to it. Focusing on the most prevalent form of graffiti writing in Denver, the book provides a detailed consideration of the social and cultural circumstances that surround its creation. It explores the national and international development and reception of hip hop graffiti that provided the context in which Denver's hip hop graffiti emerged. It also examines the reaction of Denver's corporate and political community, highlighting the establishment of campaigns to criminalise it and identifying both Denver's graffiti scene and the response to it as interwoven with broader cultural processes. Most significantly, the book puts forward the circumstances surrounding the phenomenal growth of, and subsequent attempts to suppress, hip hop graffiti as indicative of injustice and inequality within the United States.

This edited volume illuminates critical research issues through the particular lens of homelessness, bringing together some of the leading scholars in the field, from an array of disciplines and perspectives, to explore this condition of marginalization and the ethical dilemmas that arise within it. The authors provide insights into the realities and challenges of social research that will guide students, activists, practitioners, policymakers, and service providers, as well as both novice and seasoned researchers in fields of inquiry ranging from anthropology and sociology to geography and cultural studies. Although many texts have explored the subject of homelessness, few have attempted to encapsulate and examine the complex process of researching the issue as a phenomenon unto itself. Professional Lives, Personal Struggles examines the many challenges of conducting ethical research on homelessness, as well as the potential for positive change and transformation, through the deeply personal accounts of scholars and advocates with extensive experience working in the field.

This is an ethnographic collection of 12 edited talks and conversations from a conference on violence, conflict, and the world order held at Eastern Kentucky University. The conference was organized by Carole Garrison, Chair of Criminal Justice and Police Studies at EKU, who arranged for video recording and transcription of the talks and conversations. The collection is divided into two parts: domestic and global issues. Some of the topics examined include violence against women, restrictions on women's reproduction, culture and ideology, homeland security, terrorism and invasion, empire, and human rights. The talks themselves are framed by an insightful and exciting prologue and an intriguing epilogue by the editor.

"This book was written late in the North American night, with the rumbling thuds and booming train horns of the nearby rail yard echoing through my windows, reminding me of the train hoppers and gutter punks out there rolling through the darkness." In Drift, Jeff Ferrell shows how dislocation and disorientation can become phenomena in their own right. Examining the history of drifting, he situates contemporary drift within today's economic, legal, and cultural dynamics. He also highlights a distinctly North American form of drift-that of the train-hopping hobo-by tracing the hobo's legal and political history and by detailing his own immersion in the world of contemporary train-hoppers. Along the way, Ferrell sheds light on the ephemeral intensity of drifting communities and explores the contested politics of drift: the strategies that legal authorities employ to control drifters in the interest of economic development, the social and spatial dislocations that these strategies ironically exacerbate, and the ways in which drifters create their own slippery forms of resistance. Ferrell concludes that drift constitutes a necessary subject of social inquiry and a way of revitalizing social inquiry itself, offering as it does new models for knowing and engaging with the contemporary world.

This new title will become the core book on cultural criminology. Cultural Criminology Unleashed brings together cutting edge research across the range of meanings of the term 'cultural', from anthropology to art and the media to theories of meaning. Global in scope, contributions take in the US, UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. on both sides of the Atlantic. academics as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students of criminology/sociology of deviance, penology and criminal justice, as well as cultural studies, media studies, qualitative research methods and sociology.

"A firecracker of a book. Prepare yourself for total immersion. It reads like "Down and Out in Paris and London," George Orwell with a sense of fun; it has all the detail and magic of James Agee. A pleasure to read: anarchic, irreverent and totally relevant."
--Jock Young, co-editor of "The New Politics of Crime and Punishment"

"Outstandingly well written, gripping, and hugely entertaining. Destined to become a classic, this anarchy of consumerism turns one man's 'trash' into a treasure: an insightful, colorful, imaginative and playful window on the underground economy of scavenging for a living among other people's cast offs."
--Stuart Henry, co-author of "Essential Criminology"

"In "Empire of Scrounge," Jeff Ferrell serves as an unassuming guide into the netherworld of our own garbage. Ferrell suggests that such urban prospecting is possibly far more than simple recycling--it is a form of politics that consciously opts out of a vapid consumer culture. It's a must read!"
--Meda Chesney-Lind, co-editor of "Invisible Punishment: The Collateral Consequences of Mass Imprisonment"

"I love this book! It's engaging, witty, and jarring--every page is filled with new treasures and powerful analyses of our throwaway culture. Ferrell opens a rare and vivid window on the raw aftermath of our society's conspicuous consumption and wasteful behavior, and he offers real possibilities for reflection, meditation, and redemption."
--David Naguib, author of "Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago"

"By turns moving, funny, and shocking. Particularly sobering are the book's implications for modern consumer life, and the incomprehensible amounts of junk, waste and surplus generated by a modern city."
--Philip Jenkins, author of "Decade of Nightmares: The End of the Sixties and the Making of Eighties America"

"Ferrell's book, a deliberate and purposeful 'meandering' through an alternative economy and cutlure, is a fascinating exploration of the dark side of comsumption."
--Pramod K. Nayar, University of Hyderabad, India

"Patrolling the neighborhoods of central Fort Worth, sorting through trash piles, exploring dumpsters, scanning the streets and the gutters for items lost or discarded, I gathered the city's degraded bounty, then returned home to sort and catalogue the take."
--From the Introduction

In December of 2001 Jeff Ferrell quit his job as tenured professor, moved back to his hometown of Fort Worth, Texas, and, with a place to live but no real income, began an eight-month odyssey of essentially living off of the street. Empire of Scrounge tells the story of this unusual journey into the often illicit worlds of scrounging, recycling, and second-hand living. Existing as a dumpster diver and trash picker, Ferrell adopted a way of life that was both field research and free-form survival. Riding around on his scrounged BMX bicycle, Ferrell investigated the million-dollar mansions, working-class neighborhoods, middle class suburbs, industrial and commercial strips, and the large downtown area, where he found countless discarded treasures, from unopened presents and new clothes to scrap metal and even food.

Richly illustrated throughout, Empire of Scrounge is both a personal journey and a larger tale about the changing values of American society. Perhaps nowhere else do the fault lines of inequality get reflected soclearly than at the curbside trash can, where one person's garbage often becomes another's bounty. Throughout this engaging narrative, full of a colorful cast of characters, from the mansion living suburbanites to the junk haulers themselves, Ferrell makes a persuasive argument about the dangers of over-consumption. With landfills overflowing, today's higly disposable culture produces more trash than ever before--and yet the urge to consume seems limitless.

In the end, while picking through the city's trash was often dirty and unpleasant work, unearthing other people's discards proved to be unquestionably illuminating. After all, what we throw away says more about us than what we keep.

"This book was written late in the North American night, with the rumbling thuds and booming train horns of the nearby rail yard echoing through my windows, reminding me of the train hoppers and gutter punks out there rolling through the darkness." In Drift, Jeff Ferrell shows how dislocation and disorientation can become phenomena in their own right. Examining the history of drifting, he situates contemporary drift within today's economic, legal, and cultural dynamics. He also highlights a distinctly North American form of drift-that of the train-hopping hobo-by tracing the hobo's legal and political history and by detailing his own immersion in the world of contemporary train-hoppers. Along the way, Ferrell sheds light on the ephemeral intensity of drifting communities and explores the contested politics of drift: the strategies that legal authorities employ to control drifters in the interest of economic development, the social and spatial dislocations that these strategies ironically exacerbate, and the ways in which drifters create their own slippery forms of resistance. Ferrell concludes that drift constitutes a necessary subject of social inquiry and a way of revitalizing social inquiry itself, offering as it does new models for knowing and engaging with the contemporary world.

The candid, first-person accounts of their experiences, especially in illegal, immoral, and dangerous situations, reveal the horrors, perils, and joys of ethnographic research. The methodological, theoretical, and political implications of field work are also thoroughly discussed. Describing their deep involvement with such diverse groups as skinheads, phone sex workers, drug dealers, graffiti artists, and the homeless, many of the authors confess to their own episodes of illegal drug use, drunk driving, weapons violations, assault at gunpoint, obstruction of justice, and arrest while engaged in ethnographic studies.
Although field research is seldom safe, convenient, or above professional criticism, this volume demonstrates that it is vital for providing a fuller understanding of deviant and criminal populations.

Jeff Ferrell draws on his own extensive field research to thoroughly examine the practices of graffiti artists. Focusing on the city of Denver, he takes a close look at the war against graffiti and the interplay between cultural innovation and institutionalized intolerance, arguing that coordinated corporate and political campaigns to suppress and criminalize graffiti writers further disenfranchises the young, the poor, and people of color.

Cultural Criminology: An Invitation traces the history, theory, methodology and future direction of cultural criminology. Drawing on issues of representation, meaning and politics, this book walks you through the key areas that make up this fascinating approach to the study of crime. The second edition has been fully revised to take account of recent developments in this fast developing field, thereby keeping you up-to-date with the issues facing cultural criminologists today. It includes: A new chapter on war, terrorism and the state New sections on cultural criminology and the politics of gender, and green cultural criminology Two new and expanded chapters on research methodology within the field of cultural criminology Further Reading suggestions and a list of related films and documentaries at the end of each chapter, enabling you to take your studies beyond the classroom New and updated vignettes, examples, and visual illustrations throughout Building on the success of the first edition, Cultural Criminology: An Invitation offers a vibrant and cutting-edge introduction to this growing field. It will encourage you to adopt a critical and contemporary approach to your studies in criminology. First edition: 2009 Distinguished Book Award from the American Society of Criminology's Division of International Criminology

In "Making Trouble" leading scholars in criminology, sociology, criminal justice, women's studies, and social history explore the mediated cultural dynamics that construct images and understanding of crime, deviance, and control. Contributors examine the intertwined practices of the mass media, criminal justice agencies, political power holders, and criminal and deviant subcultures in producing and consuming contested representations of legality and illegality. While the collection provides broad analysis of contemporary topics, it also weaves this analysis around a set of innovative and unifying themes. These include the emergence of "situated media" within and between the various subcultures of crime, deviance, and control; the evolution of policing and social control as complex webs of mediated and symbolic meaning; the role of power, identity, and indifference in framing contemporary crime controversies, with special attention paid to the gendered construction of crime, deviance and control; and the importance of historical and cross-cultural dynamics in shaping understandings of crime, deviance, and control.