A pathbreaking analysis of the social construction of gender and its link to criminality. A decisive step beyond role-based theories of gender and crime. Finally, a thorough analysis of women, men and crime.

Nancy Jurik, Arizona State University

. . . compactly presented and even more cogently argued . . . deserves the largest audience, if only because of the importance of the debate it is sure to generate . . . Messerschmidt is to be commended for humanizing the study of criminality and demonstrating its complex link to gender construction in contemporary society.

The Criminologist

His critique of deficiencies in criminological and sex-role theories is excellent, and I commend it as an accessible introduction to the issues.

Kathleen Daly, American Journal of Sociology

Masculinities and Crime is an important step in the continuing development of criminological theory . . . addressing the fact that crime is, if nothing else, primarily the province of men.

Susan L. Caulfield, Western Michigan University

This is, as Connell rightly points out in his foreword, a book written with 'imagination and passion' . . . It . . . pulls together a lot of apparently disconnected fragments of knowledge with . . . felicity . . . As well as being a very good book, it is also probably the first attempt to rethink criminology in the light of the new work on men and masculinities . . .

Tony Jefferson, British Journal of Criminology