NCJ Number
175350
Date Published
1998
Length
363 pages
Annotation
This is an overview of criminology theories in their historic and social context.
Abstract
As a text in theoretical criminology, this book does not concentrate on presenting the facts known about crime, but on the theories used to explain those facts. The book's 19 chapters discuss: (1) Theory and Crime; (2) Classical Criminology; (3) Positivist Criminology; (4) Theories Related to Physical Appearance; (5) Theories Related to Intelligence; (6) Biological Factors and Criminal Behavior; (7) The Personality of the Offender; (8) Crime and Economic Conditions; (9) Durkheim, Anomie, and Modernization; (10) The Ecology of Crime; (11) Strain Theories; (12) Learning Theories; (13) Control Theories; (14) The Meaning of Crime; (15) Conflict Criminology; (16) Critical Criminology; (17) Developmental Criminology; (18) Integrated Theories; and (19) Assessing Criminology Theory. The book suggests that it is time to stop the competitive testing of criminology theories and to focus on integration by looking at theories in terms of their variables and the relations among them, to resolve the question of which variables are related to crime and in which ways. Once that is resolved, theories of criminal behavior break into two broad categories: individual difference and structure/process. Notes, tables, figures, indexes