NCJ Number
169723
Date Published
1995
Length
663 pages
Annotation
This textbook presents an introduction to criminology and explains the nature and extent of crime, crime causes, and informal and formal responses to crime.
Abstract
Individual sections focus on the nature of crime and delinquency, the social origins of the criminal law, the nature of criminology, and the methods of criminological research. Additional sections on the measurement of crime; the crime types including violent and property crimes, white-collar crime, organized crime, and victimless crimes; the costs of different types of crimes; and variations in crime rates by community, season, sex, age, race, and social class. Further sections present biological and psychological explanations of crime, socioeconomic sources of crime, social control theory, sources of learning to commit crime, differential association theory, labeling theory, opportunities and facilitating factors for crime, criminal careers, and the organization of criminal behavior through gangs or other means. Chapters on reactions to crime focus on fear of crime, individual responses, informal social control, the components of the criminal justice system, deterrence and incapacitation, retribution, rehabilitation, and varied approaches to crime prevention and crime control. Photographs, figures, tables, chapter reading lists and review questions, glossary, subject and name indexes, and approximately 1,100 references