Suchergebnisse

"Criminology is a young discipline. In fact, the term "criminology" is only a little more than a century old. But in this brief time, criminology has emerged as an important social and behavioral science devoted to the study of crime and criminal behavior, and the society's response to both. Criminology fosters theoretical debates, contributes ideas and constructs, develops and explores new research methodologies, and suggests policies and solutions to a wide range of crime problems that dramatically affect the lives of countless people in the United States and around the world. Problems as vital and urgent as those addressed in this book are challenging, exciting, and, at the same time, disturbing and tragic. Moreover, these problems are immediately relevant to all of our lives. This is especially true today, when crimes here and abroad touch so many lives, in so many ways. Our goal with this book has been, and remains, to discuss these problems, their origins, and their possible solutions in a clear, practical, straightforward fashion that brings the material to life for students. We invite faculty and students alike to join the authors' in traveling along criminology's path, exploring its expanding boundaries, and mapping out its future"--

For close to a century, the field of community criminology has examined the causes and consequences of community crime and delinquency rates. Nevertheless, there is still a lot we do not know about the dynamics behind these connections. In this book, Ralph Taylor argues that obstacles to deepening our understanding of community/crime links arise in part because most scholars have overlooked four fundamental concerns: how conceptual frames depend on the geographic units and/or temporal units used; how to establish the meaning of theoretically central ecological empirical indicators; and how to think about the causes and consequences of non-random selection dynamics. The volume organizes these four conceptual challenges using a common meta-analytic framework. The framework pinpoints critical features of and gaps in current theories about communities and crime, connects these concerns to current debates in both criminology and the philosophy of social science, and sketches the types of theory testing needed in the future if we are to grow our understanding of the causes and consequences of community crime rates. Taylor explains that a common meta-theoretical frame provides a grammar for thinking critically about current theories and simultaneously allows presenting these four topics and their connections in a unified manner. The volume provides an orientation to current and past scholarship in this area by describing three distinct but related community crime sequences involving delinquents, adult offenders, and victims. These sequences highlight community justice dynamics thereby raising questions about frequently used crime indicators in this area of research. A groundbreaking work melding past scholarly practices in criminology with the field's current needs, Community Criminology is an essential work for criminologists

"This volume is intentionally far from representing an attempt at exhaustive discussion, or even complete cataloging, of the data of criminology. The book differs from others in the general field in that it is, from first to last, an attempt at a psychologic approach. But it does not emphasize criminal-personality characteristics that were "before the world was." On the other hand the author believes that this personality is at least as much a product of social contacts as is the professional disposition of the physician, e.g. The acquired attitudes, he believes, are probably the greatest sources of our behavior whether it be making professional visits upon the sick or robbing banks. These attitudes develop out of infinitely numerous reactions to our environment; reactions that are facilitated or retarded by reason of our native capacities, our prepotent reflexes, etc. Whatever agencies are set up, therefore, for dealing with the criminal must be examined as to their merits by reference to their suitability for developing appropriate attitudes among criminals and all others who come into contact with these agencies"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

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