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AbstractThis essay examines the intersections between urban sociology and criminology in relation to fear of crime. I argue that there is a disconnect between theory and practice when it comes to reducing fear of crime that needs to be resolved in order for the postindustrial city to attract the new middle‐class demographic that is known for embracing and seeking out diversity. Despite the contributions made by environmental criminologists and new urbanists, the most popular explanation of fear of crime and crime reduction, offered by the field of criminology, focuses on reducing quality‐of‐life offenses and incivilities. Yet, these strategies are not known to significantly reduce fear of crime, but rather for purging the urban landscape of its diversity through exclusion.

This volume in the series Sociology of crime, law, and deviance edited by Mathieu Deflem addresses contemporary issues of policing with a focus on the characteristics of police power as a coercive force in society and its continued need for legitimacy in a democratic social order. The book brings scholars together to discuss a variety of important topics concerning police and policing. Developments and problems associated with police power are at the very front of current public debate. In the broader constellation of the culture of modern crime control, police institutions enjoy a privileged status. Continued developments in technology and surveillance have affected policing as have continued and new crime problems. Not least of all, of course, the legitimacy of policing has recently been questioned because of several highly-publicized incidents involving police violence. The chapters in this book provide clarification on these and related aspects of police and policing in society. This collection is valuable for students and scholars in sociology, criminology, law, political science, and public policy.

Rates of crime for Blacks in the United States in the post-slavery era have always been high relative to Whites. But explaining, or minimizing, this fact faces a major problem: individual excuses for bad acts point to deficiencies, in the agent, which are perhaps forgivable, such as mental deficiency or a deprived childhood, but at the price of treating the agent as less than a full member of the moral community. Collectivizing excuses risks implying group inferiority. The history of attempts to provide an explanation of crime that mitigates blame without undermining full participation to the moral community is long and convoluted, leading to the presently widespread claim that crime is itself a product of victimization through pervasive racism. Three basic strategies – rejection of comparison, attribution to racially invariant causes and explanation by reference to uniquely Black conditions, such as subculture or extreme stigmatization – are identified and their ethical implications distinguished.

This volume presents recent insights in the sociological study of surveillance and governance in the context of criminal justice and other control strategies. The chapters provide a varied set of theoretical perspectives and substantive research domains on the qualities and quantities of some of the most recent transformations of social control as well as their historical precursors in diverse social settings. The contributors to this volume testify to the increasing relevance of surveillance and governance across the globe as well as the cross-national study thereof. Among the central issues discussed is the relationship between state and non-state mechanisms of surveillance. Moreover, many of the new technologies that a decade ago led to analytical reflections of the highest order today have become banal in their everyday application and routine diffusion. What can sociologists intelligently say about these developments in both empirical and theoretical respects? Creatively exploring many facets of the broader constellation of contemporary surveillance and governance strategies with respect to both crime control and related developments, the contributors of this volume offer provocative and thoughtful reflections that will stimulate our theoretical thinking about relevant issues.This is a contemporary study of surveillance and governance. It includes contributions from an international group of leading scholars.