Constructing Crime examines the central question: Why do we define and enforce particular behaviours as crimes and target particular individuals as criminals?

To answer this question, contributors interrogate notions of crime, processes of criminalization, and the deployment of the concept of crime in five radically different sites - the enforcement of fraud against welfare recipients and physicians, the enforcement of laws against Aboriginal harvesting practices, the perceptions of incivilities or disorder in public housing projects, and the selective criminalization of gambling.

By demonstrating that how crime is defined and enforced is connected to social location and status, these interdisciplinary case studies and an afterword by Marie-Andree Bertrand challenge us to consider just who is rendered criminal and why. This timely volume will appeal to policy makers and students and practitioners of law, criminology, and sociology.

By revealing the constructed and political nature of crime, this timely book challenges us to consider just who is rendered "criminal" and why.

About the Author

Janet Mosher is an associate professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. Joan Brockman is a professor at the School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University.

Contributors: Colin S. Campbell, Lisa Chartrand, Timothy F. Hartnagel, Joe Hermer, Frederic Lemieux, Nadege Sauvetre, Garry J. Smith, Cora Weber-Pillwax

With an Afterword by Marie-Andree Bertrand

Book Information
ISBN 9780774818209
Author Marie-Andree Bertrand
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint University of British Columbia Press
Publisher University of British Columbia Press
Weight(grams) 340g