ABSTRACT
This chapter critically reviews important contributions to criminological literature addressing the relationship between men, masculinities and violence. Studies of violence did describe and analyse the actions of men, but this had been done in an indirect way, which did not address men as gendered beings. The development of critical approaches to the study of men, masculinities and crime is very much indebted to the work of feminist scholars on issues of gender and its relationship with offending. In contrast to pro-feminist, structural perspectives on men's violence, the chapter focuses upon literature that addresses more directly the impact of a changing socio-economic environment upon men and how these transformations might be linked to violent criminality. The chapter focuses on subjective and psychological dimensions of masculinity, in particular how men interact, psychically, with broader socio-structural forces, and what relationship this might have with violence.
