Family Criminology: An Introduction

This textbook offers a fresh conceptual approach to understanding the intersections of crime, criminal justice and family life. In doing so, it proposes a brand new sub-discipline of Criminology that places the family at the heart of its analysis, offering a groundbreaking approach to the study of crime and deviance. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, this introductory text explores topics from across the spectrum of criminological scholarship, including youth justice, prisons, organized crime, family violence and homicide, and victimology.

By drawing together these distinct topics and identifying and discussing their familial connections, this book argues for the importance of family life in the theory and practice of crime and justice. Key questions discussed throughout the text include: How does the criminal justice system engage with families across different contexts? In what ways do crime and criminal justice processes impact on family life? In what ways can families transform the criminal justice system for the betterment of all? This book challenges commonly-held and simplistic assumptions about what the family is in relation to crime and justice and, by doing so, engages in deeper debates about human rights, social justice and the role of the state in relation to families and crime. It includes pedagogic features including conceptual toolboxes, questions for reflection, textboxes, a glossary and interviews with practitioners.