Ian Taylor

Ian Taylor (1944-2001) was a British sociologist and criminologist educated at Durham University and Cambridge who held academic posts including at Sheffield University, Carleton University in Canada and the University of Salford, where he chaired sociology, before returning to Durham University as principal of Van Mildert College from 1999 to 2000. In 1973 he co-authored The New Criminology: For a Social Theory of Deviance with Paul Walton and Jock Young, a book that challenged both classical and positivist criminology and became one of the founding texts of critical criminology, and the three authors were also founding members of the National Deviancy Symposium and later co-edited the journal Critical Criminology. His later books, including Law and Order: Arguments for Socialism and Crime in Context, continued to examine crime as a social and political problem shaped by media representation and economic conditions.