Theorizing Crime and Deviance: A New Perspective

by Steve Hall

This sophisticated, original book investigates the motivations behind crime and deviance. Steve Hall uses cutting-edge philosophy and social theory to analyze empirical work on patterns of crime and illuminate contemporary criminological issues. He provides a fresh, relevant critique of the philosophical and political underpinnings of criminological theory and the theoretical canon′s development during the twentieth century. Presenting harm as a universal means of understanding crime and deviance, Theorizing Crime and Deviance draws on dialectics, transcendental materialism and psychosocial history to construct an alternative perspective for criminological thought in the twenty-first century.

304 pages, Paperback

First published April 20, 2012

About the author

Steve Hall is Professor of Criminology in the Social Futures Institute. He is an internationally leading criminological researcher and theorist. His book Criminal Identities and Consumer Culture (Willan 2008, with Simon Winlow and Craig Ancrum) has been described as ‘an important landmark in criminology’ and his most recent book Theorizing Crime and Deviance (Sage 2012) has been lauded as ‘a remarkable intellectual achievement’ that ‘rocks the foundations of the discipline’.
In the 1970s Steve worked as a professional musician and general labourer, and in the 1980s he worked in the field of rehabilitation and youth offending.
After graduating from university in 1991 with first class honours in sociology, he worked as a lecturer at Teesside from 1993, a member of the team that established the country’s first single-honours criminology degree. After spells as a senior research fellow at the University of Durham and a researcher and teacher at Northumbria University, he re-joined Teesside in 2010.