NCJ Number
127592
Date Published
1990
Length
461 pages
Annotation
This text is designed for use in criminology courses in which crime causation is the main focus.
Abstract
An overview traces the development of Western criminological thought and focuses on the major issues in the study of crime, the early administration of justice, and the classical and positive schools of criminology. Additional sections discuss the sociological approaches to crime causation, including strain theories, control theories, conflict/radical theories, cultural deviance theories, and symbolic interactionist theories and explain biological theories focusing on heredity, biological inferiority and body-type theories, difference and defectiveness theories, and nutrition theories. A section on psychological approaches to crime causation considers Freudian and psychoanalytic contributions to crime causation theories, theories related to emotional problems and mental disorders, sociopathic personality theories, and theories regarding thinking patterns. Photographs, figures, and chapter reference notes, discussion questions, and exercises