NCJ Number
138485
Date Published
1992
Length
558 pages
Annotation
This book profiles crime in modern society, traces the history of criminology, reviews crime causes theory, profiles various types of crime, and discusses aspects of the criminal justice system.
Abstract
In its examination of the various factors that influence the development of criminality (social, psychological, economic, and biological), the book argues that most criminals are normal people who are responding to economic pressures or other features of the social structure of complex societies, rather than flawed individuals whose lawbreaking has biological or psychological causes. Chapters that profile various types of offenses discuss the nature and causes of predatory crime; homicides, assaults, and sex crimes; white-collar and organizational crime; organized crime; and mundane crime. Chapters on female offenders and female crime as well as political crime are included. Chapters on the criminal justice system's response to crime focus on the police, arrest to trial, and the punishment and treatment of offenders. The two final chapters discuss correctional social organization and crime, criminology, and criminologists. Chapter notes and summaries, as well as name and subject indexes