Because crime is conceived of, made meaningful, and acted out through particular discursive forms, one important component in any crime reduction policy is to change the ways of talking that facilitate its expression. The book describes the origins of constitutive theory in postmodernism, seeking to clarify the theory’s framework. It also provides a synopsis of the ways human agency and resistance constitute the meaning of crime and legality while at the same time constituting human subjects’ identities. Several essays demonstrate the importance of extralegal processes and local and popular culture in the co-production of crime and explore the ways human and social bodies are regulated. The book examines the constitution of societal responses through policing and penal systems while also exploring how human agency resists, how it is reconstituted and how it constitutes the penal structures with which it is engaged. Finally, it demonstrates the tenuous nature of justice and points to the possibilities of social and political transformation. Tables, figures, references, notes, index