NCJ Number
153819
Editor(s)
R Boostrom
Date Published
1995
Length
310 pages
Annotation
This anthology of criminological papers considers what criminologists should study, the purpose of law and the administration of justice, the causes of criminal behavior, how society should react to crime, and the future of criminology.
Abstract
The first chapter, which examines what criminologists should study, contains five chapters that show American criminology is a dynamic discipline with many conflicts about what should be studied, how it should be studied, and how the results of this study should be used in practice. In discussing the purpose of law and the administration of justice, the second chapter contains six papers that hold the purposes of law to be social control and the provision of a safe and orderly society. Other statements supported in these papers are that the function of law must go beyond crime prevention and control; the law serves the interests of the power elite; controlling drugs is an appropriate use of criminal law; and controlling drugs is not an appropriate use of criminal law and the administration of justice. Six papers on the causes of criminal behavior posit that criminal behavior stems from primitive physiological characteristics, social conditions, biological and neuropsychiatric differences, learned behaviors, the criminal justice system, and lack of self-control. Issues discussed in six papers on how society should react to crime include the effectiveness of punishment in deterring criminal behavior, the impact of selective incapacitation, and whether rehabilitation works. In the concluding chapter, four papers discuss future direction in criminology. 98 suggestions for further reading and a subject index