NCJ Number
210734
Date Published
2005
Length
309 pages
Annotation
This second edition has been substantially revised and expanded to present a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to criminological theory worldwide.
Abstract
The book is divided into four parts. The first three parts describe and discuss models of criminal behavior that encompass the "rational" actor, the "predestined" actor, and the "victimized" actor, each of which have sought to explain why people commit crimes and/or develop criminal behaviors. Central to the rational-actor model is the view that people begin with a clean slate and make thoughtful personal choices regarding how they will behave, including criminal behaviors. The predestined-actor model argues that various factors, either internal or external to the individual, stimulate or condition behaviors in a deterministic fashion. The victimized-actor model proposes, with increasingly radical variants, that criminal behavior evolves from experiences of abusive and unjust treatment in the course of an individual's interactions with people and institutions in society. The fourth part of the book focuses on more recent attempts to integrate theoretical elements from both within and across models of criminal behavior. These integrated theories encompass socio-biological theories, environmental theories, social control theories, and left realism. The book recognizes the value of legal, biological, psychological, and sociological explanations of crime and criminal behavior, as well as the increasingly more sophisticated efforts to integrate these theories. Theories are placed in the sociopolitical context in which they arose, and the entire book is placed in the context of contemporary debates about modernity and postmodernity, which have been substantially influenced by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Suggested further readings for each chapter, numerous references, and subject and author indexes