NCJ Number
115253
Date Published
1989
Length
351 pages
Annotation
This text provides lessons on the science of criminology, using vignettes to illustrate major ethical, legal, social, and economic issues, as well as the notion of causation.
Abstract
Chapters examine these issues with respect to individual behavior and responsibility, larceny, embezzlement, organized crime, grand larceny, loving and fighting, the revenge/justice relationship, and the distinction between disposition and situation. Others examine modes of anticipation, forecast, prediction, and interpretation; and theories concerning immunity from or proclivities for criminality. Emphasis is on the boundaries of knowledge and competence: that is, that causation involves many ideas, that the notion of causation is needed, that desires may move the location of causation, that assigning causes assumes a system in which causes must operate, and that social scientists have no knowledge of social systems that give them greater expertise than that of informed and intelligent observers. Major conclusions include that the mixed motives for inventing and applying criminal law contribute to a criminal justice system that is less than rational; and in the arena where public policy is formed, morality wrestles with rationality. Chapter notes and subject and name indexes.