David Downes is Emeritus Professor of Social Administration and a member of the Mannheim Centre of Criminology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is currently working with Tim Newburn and Paul Rock on the official history of criminal justice policy in England and Wales 1959-1997.Paul Rock is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and a member of the Mannheim Centre of Criminology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is currently working with David Downes and Tim Newburn on the official history of criminal justice policy in England and Wales 1959-1997.Eugene McLaughlin is Professor of Criminology and a member of the Department of Sociology at the City University of London. He is currently researching the significance of institutional scandals in the UK.

• 1: Theoretical contexts: the changing nature and scope of the sociology of crime and deviance 2: Sources of knowledge about crime and deviance 3: The Chicago school 4: Functionalism: the Durkheimian legacy 5: Anomie and strain theory 6: Culture and subculture 7: Symbolic interactionism 8: Phenomenology 9: Control theories 10: Radical criminology 11: Feminist criminology 12: Victimology 13: Public criminology: theory and policy 14: The metamorphosis of the sociology of crime and deviance

I would say that while lesser books go straight to the 'deviance' aspect, this book does much more by addressing the 'sociology', situating the subject historically, culturally, and academically.