NCJ Number
225671
Date Published
2008
Length
260 pages
Annotation
This book explores in depth and detail ‘criminal life’ in Britain arguing that current sociological trend indicates that elusive illegal economic activities which continue under the radar of the government are becoming more widespread.
Abstract
Data demonstrate that the lives of those interviewed were firmly framed by advanced capitalism’s culture of ornamental consumerism. Their central concerns reflected the attention-seeking narcissism cultivated by the post-war marketing industry. The respondents constantly expressed a desire and a resolute determination to obtain symbols that reflected their fantasized identities back to themselves. This book examines the culture of egoism constituting further development in what is called the ‘culture of narcissism.’ Organized into eight main chapters, it begins with chapter 2 focusing on the ‘great change’ from traditional forms of capital, community, and politics to an increasingly competitive global economy, supported by unstable labor markets and administered by a new parapolitical system grounded in neoliberalism and beholden to the interests of the market. Chapter 3 introduces more data, which shows a growing contempt for the collective and a ubiquitous preference for low-level criminality as the means to gratify self-indulgent drives. Chapter 4 outlines two case studies reinforcing this position, along with more depth and detail showing how tightly connected individuals are to fundamental consumerist and neoliberal values. Chapter 5 introduces the idea of the diffusion of the desire to stand out from the ‘herd’. Chapter 6 continues this critique and looks into liberal-pluralist criminology. Chapter 7 explores theoretical criminology’s technical failure to deal with the functional paradoxes and dynamic tensions that constitute advanced capitalism’s system of social positions and relations and energize its consumer culture. Chapter 8 extends the critique of criminological theory and discusses the psychosocial nub of the argument. The book concludes with chapter 9 demonstrating how the ever-present sentiment of ‘hatred of losers’ is a cultural manifestation of a new historical round in the reverence of the new barbarian ‘aristocrats’ who have risen to prominence in the advanced capitalist market. Glossary, references, and indexes