NCJ Number
184341
Date Published
1999
Length
403 pages
Annotation
This text presents an overview of criminology and covers the nature and extent of crime, the types of crime, crime causes theory, and the criminal justice system.
Abstract
The first section analyzes popular images and definitions of crime, the leading models of law creation, the methods by which crime is measured and their strengths and weaknesses, and 12 common myths about crime and criminal justice. The second section examines violent interpersonal crimes; crimes of the powerful, including white-collar crime and corporate and organizational crime; conventional property crime; and public order offenses. These discussions include an analysis of the demographic characteristics of the most frequent offenders and victims. The chapters on theory examine the individual and social causes of crime and cover each theory’s background, core propositions, position on criminal responsibility, policy implications, subsequent developments, critique, and summary. The final chapters detail the criminal justice system and the major issues that each component is currently experiencing. Individual chapters focus on the history of policing, policing problems such as police misconduct and professionalism versus bureaucratization, the types of courts, issues and trends in case processing and sentencing, theories of punishment, the history of corrections, contemporary corrections, and current patterns of incarceration. The final chapter explores current themes in criminology, including crime as a disproportionately male enterprise, the intersection of crime with class and race, the restrictions that ideology places on crime policy, and others. Tables, photographs, chapter notes, and name and subject indexes