Book reviews

Rethinking Social Exclusion. Simon Winlow & Steve Hall. Reviewer: Cathal O'Connell

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Last Updated: Sunday, 24 May 2020 11:31

Published: Friday, 19 December 2014 19:03

Written by Cathal O'Connell

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Rethinking Social Exclusion: The End of the Social. By Simon Winlow & Steve Hall. 2013. Sage. P/b £25.99, H/b £79.

The objective of this book by Simon Winlow and Steve Hall is to offer a fundamental and critically informed assessment of one of the most prominent themes in the social sciences, namely social exclusion. The term social exclusion has over time become a catchall shorthand cited by many but critically engaged with by few. It has become a ubiquitous term much bandied about with scant regard for its true epistemological meaning and seems to be de rigueur in utterances from academics, researchers, politicians, advocacy groups, campaigners and columnists all of whom appear to lament its extent, have varying understandings of what it is, and diverse opinions on how it should be remedied. It crops up with regularity in official press statements on social policies, and it’s also an old reliable - explaining why disadvantaged estates need regeneration, why we must address anti-social behaviour, initiate youth diversion programmes, impose welfare to work schemes and social welfare reforms.

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The Gang and Beyond. Simon Hallsworth. Reviewer: Lorcan Byrne.

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User Rating: 4 / 5

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Last Updated: Sunday, 24 May 2020 11:32

Published: Sunday, 23 November 2014 09:49

Written by Lorcan Byrne

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Hallsworth, S. The Gang and Beyond: Interpreting Violent Street Worlds. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke. 2013. £25.99. ISBN 978-1-137358080

The growing field of cultural criminology, a love-child of critical criminology and cultural studies, is beginning to bloom. Authors such as Jeff Ferrell, Keith Hayward, Wayne Morrison, Mike Presdee and, the now late, Jock Young (among others) have been ploughing and promising what seems fertile new ground. Cultural studies in the British tradition always sought something new, either my experimenting with new methodologies, turning to philosophy and anthropology for new theoretical avenues: criminology has always been central to that project (e.g. Stuart Hall, Paul Willis, etc.). The Birmingham School has perished, but this turn toward culture is renewed, growing since the mid-1990s and it is now being explicitly and programmatically pursued in several criminology institutions and journals. This book of Simon Hallsworth marks a significant contribution in this respect.

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Ben Bowling on Global Policing. Reviewer: Mathieu Deflem.

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Last Updated: Sunday, 24 May 2020 11:34

Published: Monday, 05 May 2014 18:24

Written by Mathieu Deflem

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Ben Bowling, Policing the Caribbean: Transnational Security Cooperation in Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. 376pp. ISBN: 978-0-19-957769-9.

Leanne Weber and Ben Bowling (editors), Stop and Search: Police Power in Global Context. London and New York: Routledge, 2012. 140pp. ISBN: 978-0-415-63100-6.

Ben Bowling and James Sheptycki, Global Policing. London: Sage, 2012. 192pp. ISBN: 978-1-84920-082-0.

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In 2013 those of us social science scholars interested in the systematic study of international policing have come a long way since the days of some two decades ago when the one published work useful in this area of research was political scientist Ethan Nadelmann’s book Cops Across Borders (Penn State University Press, 1993). And even though one could still write, by the turn towards the current century, that police activities of an international nature, whether cross-border or more or less global in kind, were a relatively neglected domain of research, by now it would be completely ridiculous and outright lacking in even the slightest form of intelligence to argue that not a lot of empirical and conceptual work on the practices of international policing, especially in connection with information-sharing, would have been undertaken. The exact opposite is now true as a variety of relevant studies have appeared, revealing important historical and contemporary dimensions in multiple contexts, that are so numerous that they cannot be cited in the context of this review without doing injustice to those that would not be mentioned.

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With Liberty and Justice for Some. Glenn Greenwald. Reviewer: Steven Bittle.

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Last Updated: Sunday, 24 May 2020 11:44

Published: Friday, 20 July 2012 15:25

Written by Steven Bittle

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Glenn Greenwald (2011) With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, 304 pp. (h/b).

The U.S. is in the midst of one of the most significant crime waves in history, one in which serious and repeat offenders run afoul of the law with little fear of being caught or punished. While police have failed to investigate these crimes, politicians, particularly those with an affinity for law-and-order policies, have turned a blind eye, preferring to enact laws that prevent offenders from being held to account. What is more, the majority of American citizens appear unconcerned about the situation, mostly unaware of their own victimization. All of this begs the question: has the U.S. become a “lawless” society?

This latest book by U.S. political commentator and former federal litigator, Glenn Greenwald, provides much needed insight into America’s crime problem. However, this is not a book about street thugs, gun crimes, violent dogs or the use of CCTV in the ‘war’ on crime – issues that dominate media headlines, political agendas and criminological research – but about the culture of immunity enjoyed by America’s political and economic elite.

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