NCJ Number
145544
Editor(s)
J E Jacoby
Date Published
1994
Length
479 pages
Annotation
This book presents classics of criminology relevant to crime descriptions, theories of crime causation, and the societal response to crime.
Abstract
The selections are all classics of criminology, but they do not constitute a comprehensive collection. The book is organized in three sections. Section I, "The Classic Descriptions of Crime," presents 11 writings that are primarily descriptive, although they have theoretical value. Types of crime examined are the criminal gang, theft, juvenile delinquency, white-collar crime, victim- precipitated criminal homicide, violent crime, and social change and crime. Section II, "Theories of Causation of Crime," encompasses 200 years of theorizing about crime causes. Most of the 26 writings are about crime, but others focus on larger social issues that have direct implications for criminology. Among the topics discussed in this section are Durkheim's discussion of the normal and the pathological, Marx's paper on class conflict and law, Lombrosso-Ferrero's profile of the criminal man, and Hooton's characterization of the American criminal. Section III, "The Social Response to Crime," contains 19 writings that are variously descriptive, theoretical, or advocative about the social response to crime. For this section, the editor selected what he considers the best works on the criminal justice process as it operates internally and interacts with the social setting in which it works. Chapter notes and chronological contents