Introduction: criminological perspectives of the crisis

Writing shortly after the economic turmoil that began in earnest since the fall of 2008, it is clear to any reader what is meant when reference is made to “the” crisis. The financial crisis that developed out of the implosion of the United States housing bubble that reached its peek around 2006–2007 no doubt can be told, in its origins and consequences, in terms of a complex economic tale. But even and especially for nonexperts, the crisis need not to be argued to be of special significance in any more detail than to consider the reality that, on a near worldwide scale, millions of people have lost their jobs and/or their homes, while governments have been scrambling to develop appropriate policies to rectify conditions which they had helped to create.