Introduction

Erving Goffman’s work is transforming criminology, because scholars and criminological policy-makers are finally recognizing the power of his overall perspective, as well as the value of specific concepts such as presentation of self, stigma, havoc and containment, the interaction order, encounters, and framing. In Goffman’s perspective, “crime” is potentially present at all times and places; it is not a distinct phenomenon amenable to causal explanations. “Crime” is not a separate category of behavior, but an existential possibility inherent in all interaction.

Because Goffman did not offer a simple causal analysis of crime (or types of crime) as a coherent phenomenon, his work is only now being fully incorporated into the canon of contemporary criminology. Although both the public and criminologists continue to define and discuss “crime” as a distinct category of action and behavior amenable to explanation, Goffman instead examined it as a potential within all actions and interactions and therefore posited that its regulation is also present everywhere. By refusing to acknowledge boundaries between “crime” and “non-crime,” Goffman remained a dissenting, critical voice in the sociology of crime; his work was rarely systematically featured in the conventional discussion of causes of crime and efforts at prevention. The array of issues that are now coming to public attention calls for new engagement with his insights, and in recent years, research and theory articles based on his contributions are increasing very rapidly. Criminology in the twenty-first century confronts a range of issues that call out for Goffman-inspired analysis. They include racial inequities in policing, mass incarceration in the United States, confinement of mentally ill people in prisons, the dominance of powerful criminal gangs in many nations, and the rise of international cons and scams, some with political implications and all closely linked to the Internet and social media.

The sociological foundation of criminology demands inquiry beyond analysis of individual propensity to commit crime; it requires attention to social contexts and social structures that define, generate, and punish specific types of actions—both transgression and regulation. Émile Durkheim created the overall theoretical framework, rejecting all individual-level psychological explanations.