This bookmakes an original contribution to reconnecting criminological inquiry to the core concerns of the classical sociological imagination and to the intellectual resources of comparative and historical sociology. Throughout the book Hughes challenges the long-standing division of labour in criminology and sociology more generally between ''theory'', ''method'' and ''research''. Accordingly, the author''s concerns here are as much about the craft and working methods of being a sociological criminologist as it is about theory and concepts.
In the first half of the book, the key conceptual and methodological premises of the classical sociological tradition are outlined and the latter''s potential for revitalizing contemporary criminological research-theorizing are assessed. These chapters also address the debate regarding the relationship between crime and violence, and that of modernity and the Western ''civilizing process''. In the second half of the book, thr
