Governance and Regulation in Social Life

Download or read book Governance and Regulation in Social Life written by Augustine Brannigan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-03-06 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comprising fourteen articles by leading international contributors, including some of the most prominent socio-legal and criminological scholars working in the field, this volume is currently the only work available that critically examines W.G. Carson and his crucial influence in the turn towards sociological approaches to criminology and a criminological interest in governance and social control. The 1970s witnessed an epiphany in the sociological understanding of crime in Britain. The correctional perspective, which assumed crimes had inherent or essential qualities that distinguished them from other acts, was superseded by the analysis of how social events came to be defined as so harmful and repugnant as to require criminalization. This shift in perspectives was exemplified in W.G. Carson’s work, which combines a Marxist acknowledgement of the imperative for profit with a symbolic interactionist attention to the restraining effect of prestige and status among producers and regulators. This key work is an essential read for postgraduates and researchers studying and researching in the areas of criminology and law.