The collection focuses on selected themes within the area of the sociology of crime and deviance. These are divided into four broad areas: the social construction of crime and the production and reproduction of criminal statistics; crime and gender, with attention to women as offenders and victims; a critical examination of the criminal justice system, particularly police methods and courtroom procedures; and the place of the mass media in the social construction of crime and deviance. Authors address explanations as to why crimes are differentiated between gender, age, and ethnicity; the role the media have in representing criminal and deviant behavior in a variety of forms; the problems involved in using statistics in any analysis of crime; and the institutional structure of the criminal justice system and how it processes offenders from their initial apprehension to the punishments it subsequently delivers. For individual chapters, see NCJ-159485-505. Chapter notes and references