Introduction - materials for "Making Trouble", Jeff Ferrell and Neil Websdale. Part 1 Constructions of history and myth: the elders were our textbooks - the importance of traditional stories in social control, Jon'a F. Meyer and Gloria Bogdan; the historical roots of tabloid TV crime, Paul Kooistra and John Mahoney; dominant ideology and drugs in the media, Craig Reinarman and Ceres Duncan. Part 2 Constructions of gender and crime: predators - the social construction of "stranger-danger" in Washington State as a form of patriarchal ideology, Neil Wedsale; media mysogyny - demonizing "violent" girls and women, Meda Chesney-Lind; the war against women - media representations of men's violence against women in Australia, Adrian Howe; detecting masculinity, Gray Cavender. Part 3 Constructions of subculture and crime: wild life - constructions and representations of yardies, Karim Murji; punky in the middle - cultural constructions of the 1996 Montreal summer uprisings (a comedy in four acts), Lauraine Leblanc; freight train graffiti - subculture, media, dislocation, Jeff Ferrell. Part 4 Constructions of policing and control: reflections - the visual as a mode of social control, Peter Manning; police homicide files as situated media substrates, Neil Websdale. Part 5 Constructions of crime and terrorism: Jihad as terrorism - the western media and the defamation of Quran, Fida Mohammed; fighting terrorism as if women mattered - anti-abortion violence as unconstructed terrorism, Philip Jenkins. Part 6 Conclusions and prospects: taking the trouble - concluding remarks and future directions, Neil Websdale and Jeff Ferrell.