This book represents the first full-length critical and interdisciplinary assessment of Loïc Wacquant's work in English. Wacquant's challenging critique of the neo-liberal government of crime and the punitive culture to which this is related has shaken criminology to its foundations. In a bold political analysis he describes how the US-led revolution in law and order has dismantled the welfare state, replacing it with a disciplinary and penal state. Wacquant's analysis also details the spread of neo-liberal crime control measures and the underpinning 'pornographic' discourses of crime across the developed world, although critics have questioned the extent to which this model of criminal justice really is gaining the worldwide dominance alleged. Written by criminologists and policy analysts, Criminalisation and advanced marginality offers a constructive but critical application of Wacquant's ideas. The contributors welcome the opportunity presented by Wacquant's work to re-engage with a radical politics of law and order, criminalisation and marginality, whilst raising issues of gender, resistance, conflict and history which, they argue, help to enrich and further develop Wacquant's analyses. The book concludes with a chapter from Professor Wacquant himself responding to the commentaries upon his work. It fills an important gap in the existing literature and will be exciting reading for academics and students of criminology, social policy and the social sciences more broadly.

"this volume holds great potential for future research and collaboration. Overall, the overwhelming impression is that the range of disciplinary viewpoints on offer – criminal justice, critical race theory, feminism and welfare studies, amongst others – stands as testament to the immensely varied implications of Wacquant’s work and to the burgeoning development of cross-cutting perspectives in the study of social and penal policy." LSE Review of Books blog
“This volume is to be welcomed as in many ways a refreshing reminder and change of voice” – Studies in Social Justice
"Loïc Wacquant is, without question, one of the most significant critical social scientists of the present period. By exposing his work to rigorous analysis and providing Wacquant with a right of reply, Criminalisation and Advanced Marginality comprises a riveting read." Professor Barry Goldson, The University of Liverpool

Peter Squires is Professor of Criminology and Public Policy at the University of Brighton, UK. John Lea is Visiting Professor in Criminology at the University of Brighton, UK.