Cultural Criminology and the Carnival of Crime

Cultural Criminology and the Carnival of Crimeattempts to make sense of the current increase in violence, cruelty, hate and humiliation, which has come to permeate daily life. The text argues that an overly organized economic world has provoked a widespread desire for extreme, oppositional forms of popular and personal pleasure. This desire has resulted in a cathartic 'second life' of illicit pleasures often deemed criminal by those in power. Amongst the exciting issues Mike Presdee addresses are: *joyriding *street crime *antisocial behavior in private via the internet *hate, hurt and humiliation in popular culture *the popularization and criminalization of sadomasochism and dance music cultures.

Mike Presdee is currently Reader in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at Sunderland University, and Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Sociology Department at the University of Kent.