NCJ Number
177535
Date Published
1999
Length
222 pages
Annotation
This volume critically examines contemporary, positivist-based criminology and presents an alternative perspective under which existing theories may be used and reinterpreted.
Abstract
The discussion provides an overview of criminological theorizing from the 1970s to the present, with emphasis on the ability of the most popular theories to provide insights into the complexity of criminological reality and to appreciate it. The text also reviews the similarities and differences between different theories and examines reasons for the failure of theory to deal adequately with the reality of crime. Further chapters examine the use of concepts and the way they are formulated and measured, methodologies of contemporary criminology, and the uses of subjectivity in criminology. The book next focuses on the need for theoretical models that are capable of dealing with complexity, the general history and concepts of chaos theory, self-organized criticality as a specific form of chaos theory, and metatheoretical perspective on criminology based on self-organized criticality. The final two chapters examine the implications of critical-incident metatheory for existing method and unit theories, how current theories might fit into the new concepts, and a rationale for this perspective. Figures, index, and chapter notes and reference lists