Blamestorming, Blamemongers and Scapegoats

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence We live in a society that is increasingly preoccupied with allocating blame: when something goes wrong someone must be to blame. Bringing together philosophical, psychological, and sociological accounts of blame, this is the first detailed criminological account of the role of blame in which the authors present a novel study of the legal process of blame attribution, set in the context of criminalisation as a social and political process. This timely and topical book will be essential reading for anyone working or researching in the criminal justice field. It will also be of wider interest to anyone wishing to discover the role of blame in modern society.

Gavin Dingwall is Professor of Criminal Justice Policy at De Montfort University. He has written on various aspects of criminal justice, including books on diversion in the criminal process and alcohol and crime. Tim Hillier is Associate Head of De Montfort Law School. For many years he has taught and researched in the areas of international law and criminology.