Introduction

This chapter summarises the use of Anthony Giddens' earlier work by criminologists, before concentrating on some of the arguments and positions of Beyond Left and Right that seem to have criminological relevance. Crime and criminality have not been central to Giddens' sociological concerns, though in his more recent work they do make some selective appearances, usually in relation to male violence against women or the sexual abuse of children. Equally, criminology has made little use of Giddens, a fact that will surprise only those who are not aware of the discipline's general isolation from the main strands of recent social theory. The focus in most of this will be on Beyond Left and Right, since it is here that Giddens has addressed issues of crime and criminality most explicitly, though still tangentially, and has tried to develop the policy implications of his analysis of late modernity.