Cultural Criminology is a theoretical, methodological, and interventionist approach to the study of crime and deviance that places criminality and its control in the context of culture; that is, it views crime and the agencies and institutions of crime control as cultural products--as creative constructs. Cultural criminologists focus relentlessly on the continuous generation of meaning around interaction: rules created, rules broken, a constant interplay of moral entrepreneurship, political innovation, and transgression. Indeed, Cultural Criminology is now a well-established--if...

City Limits contributes to a growing body of work under the umbrella of 'cultural criminology', which attempts to bring an appreciation of cultural change to an understanding of crime in late modernity (Hayward and Young 2004). Hayward presents an ambitious theoretical analysis that attempts to inspire a 'cultural approach' to understanding the 'crime-city nexus' and, in particular, to re-address 'strain' and the concept of 'relative deprivation' in the context of a culture of consumption.

The book incorporates an impressive array of literature from beyond the boundaries...