Summary
Contents
Criminology and Social Policy systematically examines the relationship between social policy and crime. In this lively and engaging text, Paul Knepper discusses the difference social policy makes, or can make, in any response to crime. He also considers the contribution of criminology to the debates on major social policy areas, such as housing, education, employment, health and family. The book provides criminology students with an understanding of key social policy issues, and introduces criminological theory to social policy students. It is designed to cover the core components of courses in both of these areas.
Poverty, ‘Race’, and Gender
Poverty, ‘Race’, and Gender
Summary
- Policy terms such as ‘underclass’ and ‘social exclusion’ activate racialised and gendered images of poor people
- Popular concerns about the welfare state have focused on issues of welfare dependency and scrounging and have overlooked implications for victimisation of women
- Reactions to urban riots and immigrants have invoked the belief that poor people are dangerous and violent
One of the working assumptions of critical enquiry in criminology is that social problems are seldom what they seem. Critical criminologists demonstrate how the response to crime is about more than reducing victimisation. Crime represents a site for the construction of a number of social projects principally tied to popular anxieties about the poor. News headlines about surges in crime rates and the emergence of ...