NCJ Number
146608
Editor(s)
G Barak
Date Published
1994
Length
314 pages
Annotation
These mainstream and critical criminological essays address the individual-society relationship in examining some aspects of what can be broadly classified as juvenile delinquency.
Abstract
The seven chapters comprising the first section have their roots in groundbreaking 19th Century and 20th Century work in the disciplines of biology, sociology, and psychology. These mainstream chapters are derived from a positivist philosophy, interested in maintaining the status quo by attempting to delineate biological, psychological, and sociological differences between those who commit crimes and those who do not. Because these essays ignore the criminalization process, their primary objective is to find the most effective means of controlling criminals or the necessary evils of crime. In the second section, the authors of nine critical chapters belong to a movement demystifying crime and attempting to find a socially constructed meaning of criminality. In pursuing the roots, rather than the symptoms, of crime, these authors are expressing their belief that society needs to make progressive changes in the prevailing institutional orders. Chapter references