Criminology

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Detailed contents -- Part 1 Understanding crime and criminology -- 1 Understanding crime and criminology -- What is criminology? -- An interdisciplinary subject -- Defining criminology -- Understanding crime -- Crime and the criminal law -- Crime as a social construct -- Historical variation -- Criminology in Britain -- Further reading -- 2 Crime and punishment in history -- Introduction -- Emergence of a modern criminal justice system -- Policing -- The 'new police' -- Resistance and reform -- Into the twentieth century -- The victim and prosecution -- Formalisation of the prosecution process -- The courts -- Decline of the profit motive -- Punishment -- Capital punishment -- Transportation -- Imprisonment -- Probation -- Crime and violence in history -- Levels of crime -- Perceptions of crime -- Questions for further discussion -- Further reading -- Websites -- 3 Crime data and crime trends -- Introduction -- Measuring crime -- Official statistics -- England and Wales: Criminal Statistics -- United States: Uniform Crime Reports -- Assessing official statistics -- Impact of legislation -- Understanding 'attrition' -- Limitations of official statistics -- Victimisation surveys -- The Crime Survey for England and Wales -- Local crime surveys -- Other victimisation surveys -- Assessing victimisation surveys -- Comparing official statistics and victimisation surveys -- Crime trends -- Data on offenders -- Self-report studies -- Assessing the self-report method -- Questions for further discussion -- Further reading -- Websites -- 4 Crime and the media -- Introduction -- Academic study of the media -- Media representations of crime -- Newsworthiness -- The crime content in the media -- Violent crime in the news -- Are the media criminogenic? -- Media effects -- Media and fear of crime -- Moral panics