Criminology has always enjoyed a highly productive relationship with the city, generating many important empirical and theoretical studies. But all too often the human experience, social diversity and the inherently pluralistic fabric of city life are transformed into the discourse of demographics, statistics and rationality. This book examines the crime-city nexus in a way that makes sense of criminology's past and contemporary engagements including both administrative criminology and the work of Jack Katz and Mike Davis. Drawing on a range of disciplinary frameworks - social theory, urban studies, architectural theory and research into urban consumerism practices - the author argues that consumption is central to understanding the city and urban crime. This book will be of interest to students and academics of criminology, social theory, urban studies and cultural studies.