Masculinities, crime and criminalisation

This chapter comprised an overview of key developments in the criminology and masculinity field, with discussion of theoretical advances and the expanding number of detailed studies of violence and crime including novel ethnographic and life histories material. These developments rejected essentialist ideas about the innate quality or inevitability of male perpetrated violence and crime, singular "evolutionary" explanations, and reflected threads of feminist and progressive "men's movement" viewpoints. Lastly, the item also discussed the widespread dilemma that has emerged in this field for researchers seeking to balance due consideration of masculinities as a cause of crime, alongside a critical awareness of official (police and criminal justice) criminalisation of marginal, poor, and minority men and boys.