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Reviews: Fifty Key Thinkers in Criminology

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorFergus McNeill
Published date01 September 2010
Date01 September 2010
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/02645505100570030904
Subject MatterArticles
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Reviews 345
Also, while Crewe aims to describe the interplay between biographical and
structural factors in shaping prison life, the emphasis is on the impact of neo-
paternalist power. While the prisoner typologies include some biographical distinc-
tions and the impact of (early) experiences outside the prison are discussed in rela-
tion to certain topics, the importance of such factors could have been applied more
across the board, and perhaps deserved a chapter of its own.
However, this is a book well worth reading. In discussing the different ways in
which power can operate in prison, it provides a context through which other
prison research can be examined and divergent conclusions understood. Indeed,
Crewe himself makes links to previous relevant research throughout, comparing
and contrasting his own findings where necessary. The positive relationships he
built up with his interviewees shines through from many of the quotes, with prison-
ers obviously happy to disclose discrepancies between their public persona in
prison and their private thoughts. All in all, this book allows readers to develop
a vivid understanding of the experience of imprisonment and the factors that
shape it.
Marguerite Schinkel
Doctoral Researcher, University of Edinburgh
Fifty Key Thinkers in Criminology
Keith Hayward, Shadd Maruna and Jayne Mooney (eds)
Routledge; 2009; pp 312, £16.99, pbk
ISBN: 978–0–41542–911–5
For anyone seriously interested in criminology, opening
this book is a bit like slipping into Woolworths on a Saturday
morning with a fistful of change and the delights of the pick-
n-mix before you. But it would be a serious mistake to suggest
that this col ection lacks either substance or the capacity to
nurture and develop our understandings of criminology.
The editors explain at the outset that their ‘goal is to help enliven and humanize
the story of criminology through the power of intellectual biographies, mixing life-
story detail with analytical reflection on the...

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