The text also aims to show how sociology can provide useful insights into crime and how the study of crime can provide a means for learning about sociology. The authors apply ethnomethodology, symbolic interactionism, and structural conflict theory to a detailed study of the ways in which crime is socially constructed. The text also considers crime and punishment from a combination of these perspectives and examines the functions of crime control from structural-consensus and structural-conflict perspectives. It also reviews other main criminological perspectives, including feminism. The discussion focuses mainly on the roles of criminal law, policing, and the courts in the making of crime. Empirical findings from the United States, Great Britain, and Canada are used to illustrate each of the three sociological perspectives. Name and subject indexes and 414 references