James W. Messerschmidt's Masculinities and Crime quickly became a classic text for social scientists examining the relationship between masculinities and crime. The book is completely revised and unique in its focus on Messerschmidt's most important research and theorizing accomplished over the last twenty-five years, as well as for its emphasis on selected studies by other scholars that represent the diversity of contemporary research on masculinities and crime. This anniversary edition brings together a combination of the "old" and the "new" to examine what insight each have to offer scholars in terms of knowledge about the social construction of masculinities and crime.
Industry Reviews
It is impossible to gain a rich social scientific understanding of the relationship between masculinities and crime without reading this book. Like the first edition, this one is ground-breaking and is destined to become one of the most important contributions to the field. -- Walter S. DeKeseredy, West Virginia University
Messerschmidt, a feminist, has done the field of criminology an enormous favor. He was among the first to recognize that since boys and men commit the vast majority of serious, violent crimes, we need to theorize masculinity, and its relationship to offending. This volume updates his classic thinking on that crucial and long over looked insight. It is must reading. -- Meda Chesney-Lind, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Masculinities and Crime is an important step in the continuing development of criminological theory . . . addressing the fact that crime is, if nothing else, primarily the province of men.
-- Susan L. Caulfield, Western Michigan University
For twenty-five years, James Messerschmidt has been at the forefront of scholarly investigations of masculinities, particularly the relationship between crime and masculinities. This anniversary edition of his classic and path breaking book, Masculinities and Crime, provides the most sophisticated and compelling statement of his framework to date, along with his thoughtful review of current work by other scholars. Like the earlier edition, this new volume poses a comprehensive challenge to criminologists and policy makers who ignore gender-especially masculinity-as integral to criminal involvement. No one who studies crime can afford to ignore this book! -- Nancy Jurik, Arizona State University