C. Wright Mills and the Criminological Imagination ─ Prospects for Creative Inquiry

In spite of its widespread use within criminology, the term a€?criminological imaginationa€?, as derived from C. Wright Millsa€? classic The Sociological Imagination, has yet to be fully developed and clarified as an analytic concept capable of guiding theorizing or empirical enquiry. This volume, with a preface by Elliot Currie, engages with and reflects on this concept, exploring C. Wright Millsa€? work for criminological enquiry. Bringing together the latest work of leading scholars in the fields of criminology and sociology from around the world, C. Wright Mills and the Criminological Imagination investigates the emergence and lineage of a criminological concept indebted to Millsa€? thought, adapting and applying it to a specifically criminological context. With attention to theoretical concerns and, as well as the application of the criminological imagination in concrete empirical research, this volume sheds new light on the methodological and analytical aspects of the criminological imagination as a multifaceted concept and explores the possibilities that it offers for the emergence of an imaginative criminological practice. As such, it will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in sociology and social theory, criminology, criminal justice studies, law and research methods.

Jon Frauley is Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of Ottawa, Canada. He is the author of numerous articles and book chapters, including Criminology, Deviance and the Silver Screen: The Fictional Reality and the Criminological Imagination and co-editor of Critical Realism and the Social Sciences: Heterodox Elaborations.