Mathieu Deflem

University of South Carolina | USC · Department of Sociology

Relying on sociological work on legal cultures, including the relevant contributions by Reza Banakar, I develop an analysis and critique of selected aspects of contemporary law in the Islamic Republic of Iran. I specifically focus on the anti-Israel law (“Countering Israel’s Actions”) which the Iranian parliament passed in May 2020 just before the...

This paper discusses an effort in inclusivity and innovation in (higher) education by reporting on the results of a research study on popular culture that was conducted jointly by a student and a professor. The study focuses on sexism and traditional masculinity in contemporary country music lyrics to examine the portrayal of conventional heterosex...

This paper discusses the current policies and strategies developed by Interpol to organize international police cooperation in matters of terrorism. While the role of police in international counterterrorism cannot be denied and can only be assumed to be more important today than ever before, evidence shows that Interpol has in recent years no long...

The use of historical research methods in modern sociology has been largely conditioned by the relative popularity of the specialty area of (comparative-)historical sociology, despite the relative autonomy of methodological orientation and substantive research themes. Any discussion of historical research, whether in the specialty area of social mo...

I argue that the COVID-19 pandemic presents an opportunity for sociologists and other social scientists to focus their scholarship on this apparently new event, while applying theoretical and methodological traditions that were established during pre-pandemic times. I substantiate this argument by critically reviewing published sociological researc...

(This is a Turkish translation of my article that originally appeared in the journal Ethnology, 1999.) The origin and evolution of the 19th-century Zulu Kingdom are used to examine two competing state formation theories: Robert Carneiro’s circumscription theory and Elman Service’s theory of institutionalized leadership. Both theories partly clarify...

This is the Introduction to Diversity in Criminology and Criminal Justice Studies, edited by D.M.D. Silva and M. Deflem. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing, 2022.

This paper examines the criminal justice activism of tennis star Naomi Osaka as it evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic regarding matters of police violence and racial justice. Calls to reform and defund the police received much attention in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020. The Floyd killing also motivated Naomi Osak...

This paper examines the development of celebrity activism on racial justice in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. Extending from efforts to provide support in relief efforts, celebrity activism during the first year of the pandemic dramatically turned to matters of racial justice in the wake of the video-taped police killing of George...

Law and violence are dynamically interrelated under varying historical conditions and across societies. Law not only responds to violence, but also displays violence, legitimately or not, by the threat and use of force. This chapter begins by reviewing the variable interdependence of law and violence over the course of US history in terms of race,...

This is an op-ed about the evolving role of Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization, in a politically fractured world. It discusses problems and offers suggestions to improve international police cooperation. Please cite as: Deflem, Mathieu. 2021. "The Future of Interpol: Policing International Crime in a Political World." Op-ed....

This book provides a sociological examination of gender issues concerning the evolving place and role of women in the world of heavy metal. Grounded in feminist theories of gender difference and in close dialogue with relevant thematic studies from various perspectives, the study specifically analyzes how women are perceived to ‘do gender’ by membe...

This is a book review of Policing Iraq: Legitimacy, Democracy, and Empire in a Developing State, by Jesse Wozniak. Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books, September 2021 (online), https://clcjbooks.rutgers.edu/books/policing-iraq-legitimacy-democracy-and-empire-in-a-developing-state/

Criminologists and criminal justice scholars have elaborate experience in exploring issues of crime and/or deviance from an explicitly comparative and/or historical perspective. Despite the relative success and predominance of cross-sectional methodologies and statistical observations in crime and criminal justice research, much research that analy...

The development of the internet has presented special challenges for teaching and learning, especially from the viewpoint of the rights and expectations of the instructor to maintain an environment appropriate to fulfill educational objectives. Restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic have amplified these concerns as virtual teaching metho...

This is the Introduction to Media and Law: Between Free Speech and Censorship, edited by Mathieu Deflem and Derek M.D. Silva. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing, 2021

Please cite as: Michele Corsi, Massimiliano Stramaglia, and Mathieu Deflem. 2020. "Pedagogia dell’oggi: le sfide del presente. Percorsi di ricerca. Ricchezza e pluralità dell’indagine contemporanea." Education Sciences & Society 11(2):9-13, (online), https://ojs.francoangeli.it/_ojs/index.php/ess/issue/view/751.

Please cite as: Michele Corsi, Massimiliano Stramaglia, and Mathieu Deflem. 2020. "Pedagogy Today: The Challenges of the Present. The Richness and Plurality of Contemporary Research." Education Sciences & Society 11(2):15-19, (online), https://ojs.francoangeli.it/_ojs/index.php/ess/issue/view/751.

This chapter provides an overview of the most important components and mechanisms of counter-terrorism responses, with a focus on relevant work that is planned and enacted by police agencies and its relation to political, military, and legal activities. With special consideration for developments since the terrorist attacks of September 11, it is s...

Informed by a moral panic perspective, I analyze the music labeling debate in the United States from the mid 1980s until the early 1990s. Instigated by the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), a voluntary group set up in 1985 by several politically well-connected women, this peculiar chapter in the control of music led to a hearing in the U.S. Sen...

Since 9/11, a growing body of research has examined the national and transnational dimensions of the policing of terrorism. Yet, questions on how counter-terrorism policing efforts proliferate transnationally remain in need of empirical examination. This chapter highlights the extent to which policies on counter-terrorism policing are adopted acros...

Introduction to Methods of Criminology and Criminal Justice Research (Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance Volume 24), eds M.Deflem & D.M.D. Silva. The eleven chapters in this volume of Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance discuss a variety of issues of methodological significance in research in the fields of criminology and criminal justice stud...

Lady Gaga distinctively exemplifies the contemporary celebrity in popular culture because of the extent of her fame as well as because of the peculiar persona she presents to her audience of both fans and onlookers. In this paper, I discuss how the persona of the person born as Stefani Germanotta was created and subsequently maintained in a variety...

This is a book review of Common Enemies: Crime, Policy, and Politics in Australia-Indonesian Relations, by Michael McKenzie. Global Policy, March 29, 2019 (online), https://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/ blog/29/03/2019/book-review-common-enemies-crime-policy-and-politics-australia-indonesia-relations

I discuss the recent expansion, in our days of an incessant obsession with fame, of the adoption of ethical, political, and charity causes by celebrities, especially stars in the pop culture world of popular music. In relation to historical developments of the differentiation and de-differentiation of culture, I analyze these developments as a comm...

This is the introduction to The Handbook of Social Control, edited by Mathieu Deflem. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2019.

Deflem, Mathieu, and Stephen Chicoine. 2019. "Policing Terrorism." Pp. 235-248 in The Handbook of Social Control, edited by Mathieu Deflem. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. ------------------------------------------------------- The events of September 11, 2001 have led to dramatic changes in social control, especially in the realm of surveillance pra...

This is the introduction to Homicide and Violent Crime, edited by Mathieu Deflem. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing, 2018.

Domestic spying is a cultural construct that refers to the activities of, and debate on, intelligence agencies oriented at the home population of citizens within nations. In the United States, the debate on domestic spying has been especially intense as the country has a long-standing culture and accompanying legal and political framework devoted t...

Social control refers to the foundation of social order as well as to the definition of and response to crime and/or deviance. The concept was initially introduced in sociology to refer broadly to the foundations of social order, especially in societies that were undergoing rapid social change and exhibited an increasingly individualist values syst...

Among the most influential sociologists of the modern era, Robert K. Merton is best known for his theoretical contributions concerning the idea of the social structure and his critique of functionalism. Seeking to extend sociology beyond the confines of both conflict theories and consensus perspectives, Merton’s method of structural analysis is ori...

The sociological study of fame and celebrity is situated in the broader area of the sociology of (popular) culture. In this chapter, a theoretical perspective in the sociology of fame is presented that breaks with the reductionist notion of fame as a commodity and the related idea that fame is a pathology. Instead, fame is conceptualized from a con...

In the modern world, a variety of more and less technologically sophisticated media are responsible for establishing fame in interaction with an audience. In this chapter, the media relied upon to establish Lady Gaga’s fame are reviewed, including the various technologies through which her music is distributed, the singer’s early use of the interne...

Especially because her popularity and fame have come with great financial benefits, Lady Gaga has also been subject to various lawsuits. This chapter explains and applies a sociological theory of the behavior of law concerning the manner in which the legalities associated with fame can be explained. The legal matters involved in the case of Lady Ga...

From early on in her career and increasingly over its successful course, Lady Gaga has been involved in various activist causes and has also been outspoken on a number of ethical issues, including religion. In this chapter, the advocacy and religiosity of Lady Gaga is discussed in terms of the position of the singer as an artist who is primarily si...

Every successful career in the world of popular culture must rely on an effective organization without which popularity and fame could otherwise not be established. In this chapter, the attained fame of Lady Gaga measured in terms of its wealth is discussed in terms of the business apparatus that is behind her commercial success. The industry of La...

Because this study is focused on analyzing the social conditions of the rise to fame of Lady Gaga, a brief overview of the singer’s life and career is useful to explore as a necessary background for the remainder of the book. Lady Gaga was born and raised in New York City as Stefani Germanotta. This chapter describes the period from her early rise...

This chapter will seek to clarify the theoretical objectives and scope of Merton's work on anomie and strain as a sociology of deviant behavior, and analyze some of its pathways and turning points in the history of sociology and criminological theorizing and research. This presentation and analysis of Merton's relevant work should lead to a better...

This is the introduction to Race, Ethnicity and Law, edited by Mathieu Deflem. Bingley, UK: Emerald, 2017.

Deflem, Mathieu. 2017. "The Ombuds and Social Control." The Independent Voice, IOA newsletter, May 2017.

The Freedom of Access to Clinics Entrances Act (FACE) is a federal statute that was enacted in 1994 to prohibit the intimidation or interference, by force or threat of force or by use of physical obstruction or intentional injury, of anyone who is obtaining or providing reproductive health services and of anyone seeking to exercise first amendment...

Extradition refers to the delivery of a person, who is suspected or has been convicted of a crime, by a country or other jurisdiction where the person has taken refuge to the country or jurisdiction that asserts legal authority over said person. The purpose of extradition is to prevent criminals who flee a jurisdiction to escape from punishment for...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the primary law enforcement agency in the United States Department of Justice. The formation of the FBI dates back to the late 19th century when special investigators in the Justice Department were assigned to enforce federal criminal statutes.

Like a successful use of various media, reaching an audience is a necessary condition of fame. Discussing the role of various audiences in the formation of Lady Gaga’s fame across the globe, this chapter reviews the idea of symmetry that is established between the singer and her fans and their multiple ways of interaction, including live concert pe...

The study of the social conditions of the fame of Lady Gaga addressed in this book was first launched by means of a college course. The course became a global news sensation after it was first announced in the Fall of 2010, thereby attaining a measure of popular fame to become a part of its very subject matter. This chapter reviews the attention th...

This is a complete PDF version of my book Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame: The Rise of a Pop Star in an Age of Celebrity by Mathieu Deflem. The book is also available in paperback and kindle.

This is a book review of The Pursuit of Fugitives Across Borders, by Katherine Unterman. H-Diplo, XVIII( 4) (online), https://networks.h-net.org/node/28443/discussions/145539/h-diplo-roundtable-xviii-4-uncle-sam’s-policemen-pursuit-fugitives#_Toc462522863

This is a book review of Dirty Entanglements: Corruption, Crime, and Terrorism, by Louise Shelley.

This is the introduction to The Politics of Policing: Between Force and Legitimacy, edited by Mathieu Deflem. Bingley, UK: Emerald, 2016.

I explore dimensions and modalities of guilt and innocence in the movies of Alfred Hitchcock. Situated at the intersection of the sociology of law and cultural sociology, this analysis conceives of Hitchcock’s films as manifestations of liminality that are essentially marked by a process of transition from one state to another. Through this rituali...

The international police organization Interpol brings together police from 190 nations in a joint network for cooperation in matters of international crime. Dating back to 1923, Interpol has steadily expanded its membership and extended its mandate in the area of international police objectives. The events of September 11 and the resulting increase...

Anomie is a term that, in various forms, originally appeared in writing in Greek antiquity and biblical history. Introduced in modern sociology by means of an appropriation from social and moral philosophy at the end of the nineteenth century, the concept of anomie was first applied in the seminal works of Emile Durkheim. It was subsequently elabor...

This is a book review of Law, Society and Community: Socio-Legal Essays in Honour of Roger Cotterrell, edited by Richard Nobles and David Schiff (Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2014).

From the beginning of sociological scholarship, the legal profession has drawn attention in theory and research concerning the function of the occupational roles that are involved with the administration of law. Of special consideration is the autonomy of the legal profession and its characteristics of closure and monopoly over relevant work. The l...

The concept of anomie has been used by scholars working in multiple theoretical frameworks in sociology. Most famous are the concepts of anomie introduced by Émile Durkheim and Robert Merton, who used to term to refer to a deregulation of the social order and a demoralization of legitimate norms, respectively. Research in the anomie traditions has...

Policing organizations and activities are an important component in the wider constellation of crime control and criminal justice in society. This chapter reviews fundamental aspects of policing in terms of the following categories: the history of police systems; the functions and organization of policing; the relationship between policing and the...

Throughout the history of sociology, the concept of social control has undergone various conceptual transformations with multiple implications for sociological theory and research. In this chapter, I will review the most important moments and movements in the conceptual transformations of social control in sociology and indicate some of its potenti...

Lady Gaga is commonly thought of as a pop star and placed in the company of other female pop singers. This designation, however, may lead to overlook the extent to which Gaga’s aesthetic and public persona are not solely rooted in pop but also, and decidedly, reflect rock music stylings and an encompassing rock star attitude. In this paper, I unrav...

In the post-9/11 era, claims can repeatedly be heard that counterterrorism and related surveillance practices involve illegitimate invasions of privacy, free speech, and other violations of civil liberties. This puzzling theme of a fear of surveillance is echoed in both the relevant scholarly literature and civil liberties activism. We analyze the...

This is the introduction to Terrorism and Counterterrorism Today, edited by Mathieu Deflem. Bingley, UK: Emerald, 2015.

Deflem, Mathieu. 2015. "Comparative Historical Analysis in Criminology and Criminal Justice." Pp. 63-73 in The Routledge Handbook of Qualitative Criminology, edited by Heith Copes and J. Mitchell Miller. London: Routledge.

Deflem, Mathieu. 2014. Book review of The Cop and the Sociologist: Investigating Diversity in German Police Forces, by Barbara Thériault. Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books, November 2014. Online: http://clcjbooks.rutgers.edu/books/the-cop-and-the-sociologist.html

This is the introduction to The Politics of Policing: Between Force and Legitimacy, edited by Mathieu Deflem. Bingley, UK: Emerald, 2016.

This is a book review of Violence and Punishment: Civilizing the Body Through Time, by Pieter Spierenburg.

Turkish translation of "Law in Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action": "Habermas’in Iletişimsel Eylem Kurami’nda Hukuk" İstanbul Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Mecmuası 72(1):877-894, 2014.

Technology has fundamentally changed the face of society, and the effects that technological advances have had on the form and function of policing is no exception. In response to the changing conditions of society brought about by new developments in technology, law enforcement agencies have in turn adopted new technological advances in order to f...

Ayn Rand was a Russian-born writer who in the 1920s migrated to the United States where she became a widely-read novelist and advocated a system of ideas she referred to as the philosophy of objectivism. A popular media figure in her days, Rand attracted a fairly large number of followers and admirers who contributed to her fame and the disseminati...

Deflem, Mathieu, and Michael D. Bayer. 2014. “International Law Enforcement." Pp. 1168-1173 in The Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice, edited by Jay S. Albanese. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Propelled by the tragic events of September 11, terrorism has become a central driving force in international police work, both in the form of unilateral international police activities abroad as in the form of enhanced systems of international cooperation. This chapter reviews the main trends of the policing of international terrorism that have em...

This is a book review of The Natural Law Foundations of Modern Social Theory: A Quest for Universalism, by Daniel Chernilo.

This paper presents an account of the conditions and consequences of a university-level teaching experience in the sociology of fame centered on the case of Lady Gaga. When the course “Lady Gaga and the Sociology of the Fame” at the University of South Carolina was announced in the autumn of 2010, it became the number-one Lady Gaga news story, repo...

The advent of public sociology over the past decade represents the end of a string of crisis moments in sociology. Since the 1950s and, especially, the 1960s, sociology was argued to be in a crisis because the discipline was thought to be conservative and contributing to sustain the status quo. As a result, the 1970s witnessed a radicalization of s...

Deflem, Mathieu. 2013. "Lady Gaga: La Construcción de la Fama." Magis 433 (April-May): 30-38. (Revised Spanish translation of: "Marketing Monster: Selling the Fame of Lady Gaga")

Deflem, Mathieu. 2013. Review of Policing in Hong Kong, by Kam C. Wong. Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books, March 2013, online: http://clcjbooks.rutgers.edu/books/policing_in_hong_kong.html

Deflem, Mathieu. 2013. “Policing Terrorism After Boston.” Frontline Security 8(2):12-14.

The war on terror refers to a series of counterterrorism measures authorized and enacted by the U.S. government following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Occasionally also capitalized as War on Terror and sometimes referred to as the War on Terrorism and the Global War on Terror (GLOT), the expression is sometimes used and understood m...

The rise to fame of Lady Gaga has been the topic of much popular as well as academic debate, apart from having attracted the usual more and less sensationalist journalistic reflections. Some of these discussions have involved several rather hastily concocted pieces of advice written from within, and purported to be for the benefit of, the marketing...

This chapter situates Habermas’s ideas on law within the background of his broader work in social theory and philosophy. Given its prominence in contemporary social science, the humanities, and philosophy, Habermas’s work has been greeted with numerous secondary analyses and commentaries, of varying degrees of usefulness, a literature that I will b...

Deflem, Mathieu. 2013. "Wheeler, Stanton." Pp. 996-997 in Encyclopedia of White-Collar and Corporate Crime, Second Edition, edited by Lawrence M. Salinger. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Deflem, Mathieu. 2013. "Carneiro, Robert L." Pp. 104-106 in Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology: An Encyclopedia, edited by R. Jon McGee and Richard L. Warms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Deflem, Mathieu, and Anna S. Rogers. 2013. "Pornography." Pp. 734-737 in Encyclopedia of White-Collar and Corporate Crime, Second Edition, edited by Lawrence M. Salinger. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

The use of historical research methods in modern sociology has been largely conditioned by the relative popularity of the specialty area of (comparative-)historical sociology, despite the relative autonomy of methodological orientation and substantive research themes. Any discussion of historical research, whether in the specialty area of social mo...

This is the introduction to Music and Law, edited by Mathieu Deflem. Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, Volume 18. Bingley, UK, Emerald Group Publishing, 2013.

This is the introduction to Disasters, Hazards, and Law, ed. Mathieu Deflem. Sociology of Crime, Law, and Deviance, Volume 17. Bingley, UK: Emerald, 2012.

Deflem, Mathieu. 2007. "Policing." Pp. 970-973 in Encyclopedia of Globalization, edited by Roland Robertson and Jan Aart Scholte. New York: Routledge. -------------------------------------------------------- Global policing activities involving criminal law enforcement agencies have in recent years increased in kind and evolved into a wide variety...

Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) are cooperative counterterrorism forces consisting of officers drawn from multiple police and security agencies. They constitute the most central law enforcement means by which terrorist activities are investigated in the United States. JTTFs are organized and managed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),...

The YAMAS is a group of undercover counterterrorism units in the Israeli Border Guard (the Magav), a special branch of the Israeli Police. Unlike traditional undercover operations oriented at gathering evidence, the operations of the YAMAS typically involve hit-and-run raids targeted at apprehending or killing terrorists. An acronym for ‘Yehida Mis...

Interpol is a non-governmental organization that coordinates activities among police from different nations across the world. Originally founded in 1923, the organization has steadily increased its membership and has gradually expanded various instruments and institutions to facilitate international cooperation among police in various areas of crim...

Deflem, Mathieu. 2012. "Interpol." Pp. 1192-1193 in The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization, edited by George Ritzer. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. -------------------------------------------------- Interpol was founded at an international police congress in Vienna, Austria, in 1923 as the International Criminal Police Commission. In...

The title of this paper invokes a (famous) book of the (famous) sociologist Erving Goffman, who developed a dramaturgical approach to the analysis of face-to-face interaction on the basis of a conception of social life as a theatrical performance. In our everyday life today, the “obvious inadequacies" of the dramaturgical model are far fewer than w...

Deflem, Mathieu. 2012. “Marketing Monster: Selling the Fame of Lady Gaga.” Pp. 30-35 in The Wicked Twins: Fame & Notoriety. Exhibition catalogue, Paul Robeson Galleries. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In a world fascinated with celebrity in the...

Today, Lady Gaga is ubiquitous. A scholarly perspective on the Lady Gaga phenomenon will benefit from the specification of its formal approach and material subject matter. This paper is therefore delineated to offer a sociological analysis of the roles of sex, sexuality, and gender as these are manifested in the career of Lady Gaga and have contrib...

This is the introduction to Economic Crisis and Crime, edited by Mathieu Deflem. Bingley, UK: Emerald, 2011.

Since when, how, and why have sociologists discussed human rights in their work? In which forms of theoretical and empirical inquiry have such investigations been conducted, and what are some of their consequences for the praxis of sociology as well as for our understanding of human rights? We focus on the manner in which sociologists have conceptu...

This is a book review of Beyond Punishment: Achieving International Criminal Justice, by Mark Findlay and Ralph Henham.

Deflem, Mathieu. 2011. "Policing Afghanistan: Civilian Police Reform and the Resurgence of the Taliban." Pp. 114-124 in The Routledge Handbook of War and Society: Iraq and Afghanistan, edited by Steven Carlton-Ford & Morten G. Ender. London: Routledge. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The military intervention in Afghanistan has not only responded to th...

The concept of moral panics was systematically developed and applied by Stanley Cohen in his 1972 study of the “mods” and rockers of 1960s Great Britain. Seeking to denote the disproportionate societal response to a relatively limited and not very harmful problem, Cohen argued that a “moral panic” occurred when “a condition, episode, person or grou...

Narcotic drugs have been the subject of international policies and regulations for many years at various levels of international governance. International drug policies supplement and aim to strengthen relevant policies at the level of national states and foster cooperation among them. Countries that sign international conventions are expected to d...

Since the events of 9/11, police organizations have refocused and strengthened their efforts against terrorism. Besides federal/national and international policing practices, reorganizations have also affected local police. This paper focuses on the local police response to terrorism in the United States and suggests important aspects of counterter...