The book discusses the theory that to understand crime one must appreciate how crime operates, namely through a complex series of gender, race, and class practices. Crime must be examined by focusing on people in specific social settings, what they do to construct social relations and social structures, and how these social structures constrain and channel behavior in specific ways. Several case studies focus on masculinities and femininities as they are reproduced among different races and classes. Separate chapters address: the relationship among large-scale social change, racial masculinities, and lynching during Reconstruction and its immediate aftermath; the relationship among the social construction of race, class, masculinities, and crime in the life of Malcolm X; violence among lower working-class gang girls of color as a means of constructing a specific race and class femininity; the link between class and corporate masculinities among white managers and engineers involved in the decision to launch the space shuttle Challenger; and suggestions for further research. Notes, references, index