NCJ Number
192059
Date Published
2000
Length
213 pages
Annotation
This introduction to criminology aims to inform both those who are already studying the topic and those who are new to it.
Abstract
The discussion focuses on crime and criminology in the United Kingdom, as well as theory and research in the United States and other countries. The text begins by examining the nature of crime and criminology. It then examines the ways of studying crime and the main approaches to criminology and how these developed. The authors focus particularly on attempts to understand and explain crime through psychology and sociology and also consider the impact of feminist and postmodern thought on the development of criminology. The book’s second part examines three topics to illustrate themes raised in the first half of the book and to demonstrate how criminologists examine these topics. These topics include serial murder as an example of attempts to understand a particular type of crime, policing as an example of central issues in the criminal justice process, and closed-circuit television as an example of how to determine what is effective in crime prevention and the wider issues raised by the use of this technology. Index and approximately 400 references (Publisher summary modified)