‘Lasslett puts the biggest crime of all – the diverse state–corporate criminality which threatens lived communities, the rich biospheres they depend upon and the very existence of our planet – under the most critical social scientific scrutiny. This is a magisterial work, gleaned from experience across the globe and which speaks to each individual upon it. It is data-rich, fecund with conceptual and theoretical sophistication, methodologically inspiring and one which frightens and angers – but, ultimately, which bequeaths real grounds for hope and tools of resistance’.– Steve Tombs, Professor of Criminology, Open University, UK‘You are holding a very rare book in your hands. This is empirically rich, methodologically innovative and theoretically ground-breaking. Although most researchers struggle to achieve one of those, this book is hugely impressive for its contribution on all three counts. This is a major contribution to Marxist understandings of "crime" that is meticulously researched. It shows that ignoring formal rules and norms of conduct is not merely an anti-social practice, but is part of the creative destruction inherent in urban development. In uncovering how corruption and extortion ruin the lives of ordinary people in Papua New Guinea, Kristian Lasslett makes an utterly convincing case. Here, crime is not merely a "bad" thing that "bad" people do. Rather, the crimes of urbanisation constitute a cold and calculated means of achieving class domination’.– David Whyte, Professor of Socio-legal Studies, University of Liverpool, UK'Kristian Lasslett’s brilliant interdisciplinary study demonstrates convincingly how the urbanisation necessary to globalised capitalism is inescapably prone to the predations of state–corporate crime. The consequent human and environmental harm is here laid bare, most effectively with telling instances from Papua New Guinea that clearly show the global processes under examination. This is big-picture stuff: analytically insightful, rigorous and nuanced, methodologically innovative and empirically meticulous’.– Scott Poynting, Adjunct Professor, School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, Australia
