affects the construction of crime, such as the creation and breaking of law, as well as the interplay of moral entrepreneurship, moral innovation, and transgression. Influences Since the approach itself consists of a mélange of various perspectives linked together by dynamics of meaning, deliberations in this domain often invoke an assortment of theoretical elements. Cultural criminological analysis unambiguously roots itself in interactionist and constructionist tradition. More specifically, such approach concedes Howard Becker’s (1963) labelling theory, while augmenting it with a phenomenological dimension that considers the “webs of meaning and perception in which all parties are entangled.” Along with interactionist and constructionist theories, as well as ideas posed by Katz and Becker, cultural criminological work tends to explicitly cite, or be reminiscent of, the following theories and/or theorists among others: Jean Baudrillard and his theory of “simulacra” Max Weber Clifford Geertz and the "webs of significance" Mike Presdee and his theory of the “carnival of crime” Jeff Ferrell Keith Hayward Ethnography Textual Analysis Media Analysis Visual Criminology Semiology Phenomenology Mimesis, Social ontology General strain theory Criminal psychology Methods Originally, cultural criminologists utilized one of two main research methods: either ethnographic and fieldwork techniques, or the main qualitative research techniques associated with the scholarly readings. Cultural criminologists today also employ research methods such as participatory action research or "narrative criminology". They remain constant, however, in their rejection of abstract empiricism, positivism and administrative criminology; these rejections and criticisms were influenced by C. Wright Mills in his seminal work The Sociological Imagination and then further developed in The Criminological Imagination by Jock Young. Criticism A key criticism of cultural criminology states that the perspective romanticizes the criminal which downplays the severity of criminal action. However, theorists such as Jock Young remind critics that the aims of cultural criminology is to place deviancy within a context of culture, regardless of how the criminal comes across. Notes Further reading Ferrell, Jeff, and Keith Hayward (eds.). Cultural Criminology: Theories of Crime, Theoretical Criminology 6. Surrey, UK: Ashgate Publishing. . Ferrell, Jeff, Keith Hayward, Wayne Morrison, and Mike Presdee (eds.). 2004. Cultural Criminology Unleashed. London: GlassHouse. . Frederick, B.J. & Larruscahim, P. (2015). Cultural criminology. In Jennings, W.G. (ed) The Encyclopedia of Crime & Punishment. 1st ed. John Wiley & Sons. Geertz, Clifford. 1977. The Interpretation Of Cultures. Basic Books Classics. . Hayward, Keith. 2004. City Limits: Crime, Consumer Culture and the Urban Experience. London: Glasshouse Press.