Kevin Stenson is Professor of Criminology, and Head of the Centre for Criminology, at Middlesex University, UK.

Robert Sullivan is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University New York, USA.

1. Introduction: a guide to the chapters Part 1: Crime, Liberalism and Risk 1. The new politics of crime control 2. The schizophrenic state: neo-liberal criminal justice Part 2: Community initiatives and risk 3. Risk and correctional practice 4. Crime control and advanced liberal government: the 'third way' and the return of the localPart 3: Policing and the risk society 5. Risk, crime and prudentialism revisited 6. Loose connections and new directions: Neo-liberalism, new public managerialism and the modernisation of policing in Britain Part 4: Criminal Justice and Risk 7. 'Entitlement to cruelty': the end of welfare and the punitive mentality in the United States 8. Punishment, rights and difference: defending justice in the risk society Part 5: The media, crime and risk 9. Casino Culture: Media and crime in a winner-loser society 10. 'Bringing it all back home': populism, media coverage and the dynamics of locality and globality in the politics of crime control 11. American television, crime and the risk society