Kategoria BISAC: Social Science >> Criminology

Despite the popular perception that genetic explanations of the causes of crime are new, biological determinism dates back to the birth of criminology, and the ideas of the man widely regarded as its founder, Cesare Lombroso. His 1876 work, DEGREESICriminal Man DEGREESR, drew on Darwin to propose that most lawbreakers were throwbacks to a more primitive level of human evolution--identifiable by their physical traits, such as small heads, flat noses, large ears, and the like. These born criminals could not escape their biological destiny.

The scientific appeal of these theories of...

The stereotype of the African American male as a criminal element in society continues to be a major obstacle to greater racial harmony and the elimination of discrimination and racism on all levels in the United States. Often, this criminal stereotype is internalized by African American youth, so they are made to feel as though delinquent behavior is expected from them, and many fall into this trap. Black Demons examines this stereotype and contends that much of the blame for its perpetuation comes from U.S. mass media's negative depictions of African American males. Rome argues...

The how and why of criminal justice policy making is frequently overlooked in criminal justice texts. Stolz fills that gap with this reader, which introduces students to the study of criminal justice policy making at the federal level by drawing on the discipline of political science. Each chapter includes

academic and government publications that acquaint the reader with federal criminal justice policy-making structures and processes

criminal justice policy-making issues related to each branch of government

several political science frameworks, used to explain how governmental...

Why are some people violent and aggressive while others are not? Where do these negative emotions and actions come from? What can be done to prevent dangerous behavior? Drawing upon years of research and experience as a therapist, lecturer, and consultant to law enforcement and business, Moffatt presents a broad perspective on the psychological and sociological roots of aggression. Using both case studies and theoretical constructs from several different fields, this work provides an overview of the diverse mix of factors that create individuals with a propensity to resort to violence....

This concise and accessible new text examines the correlations between runaway children and teenage prostitution in the United States from a criminological, sociological, and psychological perspective. The author takes a systematic approach to defining and describing the differences between youth who run away from home and those who leave institutional settings and distinguishes the difference between runaway and throwaway children. A careful examination of teenage prostitution among girls and boys helps to illuminate the special problems faced by children who have run away. In addition,...

Adler, Denmark, and their contributors examine the similarities and differences in violence in various countries around the world. Each chapter is written by a scholar who lived or resided in that specific country. The analysis seeks to survey the many varieties and types of violence within each individual country from an insider's point of view of the country.

The topic of violence has a long history that has been reported from all over the world. Violence occurs in all cultures and ecologies. It involves people of all ages in innumerable situations in a variety of occasions....

In a collection of compelling contributions to the study of the nexus between race, crime, and justice, noted scholars in the field critique many long-held assumptions and myths about race, challenging criminal justice policymakers to develop new and effective strategies for dealing with the social problems such misunderstandings create. In sections devoted to criminological theory, law enforcement, courts and the law, juvenile delinquency, and gender, contributors endeavor to dispel myths about African-American involvement in the criminal justice system. In so doing, a number of important...

At a time when police abuses and errors make the headlines, it is important to understand just what goes into the decisions that police make when they are confronted with various crime scenarios in the line of duty. Required to respond within the law, many officers are able to respond in a legal manner to crime situations in which court decisions are written clearly and with easily applied guidelines. But what happens when those decisions and laws are written in a way that invites interpretation and varies from situation to situation? Based on a case study of New York City police officers,...

Walters integrates information from traditional criminological models and findings from developmental psychology to form a system of five belief systems (self-view, world-view, past-view, present-view, and future-view) designed to explain crime initiation and maintenance. While reviewing belief systems that support crime, Walters also offers a model of change through which belief systems incongruent with crime can be constructed.

He begins with a review of six traditional criminological models, each of which is considered to possess sufficient breadth and substance to advance our...

How does a Vampire Cult differ from a Satanic Cult? How do seemingly normal or ordinary citizens suddenly find themselves committed to a group whose leader promotes criminal activities and isolation from families and friends? What should you do if a loved one becomes indoctrinated by a potentially dangerous cult? This book focuses on various cults and their often criminal belief systems. Most readers are shocked by stories of mass suicides and ritualized cult killings, but few understand how such crimes come to be committed. Snow, a seasoned police officer with experience working on cult...

Transnational crime is an increasing national security threat to the United States and to individual citizens around the world. Criminal groups both in the United Staes and abroad operate crime cartels that span national boundaries, but in ways that affect all Americans, and wreak havoc on law enforcement organizations as well as businesses and other entities, such as the stock market. More often than not, transnational crime takes the form of organized crime, and in its many forms is responsible for over-priced goods, unsafe products, environmental hazards, corruption of public officials,...

Cyberstalking is an entirely new form of deviant behavior that uses technology to harass others in a variety of ways. In less than a decade, our reliance on the Internet, email, instant messaging, chat rooms, and other communications technologies has made cyberstalking a growing social problem that can affect computer users anywhere in the world. This is the first book devoted entirely to an examination of cyberstalking, providing an overview of the problem, its causes and consequences, and practical advice for protecting yourself and your loved ones.

New technologies have...

Falling for a scam or con is humiliating for anyone, and can have terrible consequences. But for the elderly, being the victim of fraud can be disastrous, and they are the most common and vulnerable targets of everyday scams, cons, and frauds. From identity theft to gambling scams, from power of attorney issues to pyramid schemes, there is no dearth of creativity in the ways some criminals will relieve the elderly from their money and their homes. Here, Alt and Wells describe the most common scams, offer the stories of actual victims, and detail ways to protect yourself and your family...

Constituting fewer than 15% of the nation's police officers, women have found it especially difficult to rise through the ranks and achieve higher posts. Here, those few women who have made it to the top--about 1% of the chiefs and sheriffs in American policing--share their stories and describe the challenges they faced as they rose to their positions. Each of the chiefs compted for their offices with other candidates, almost always male. The sheriffs--virtually all elected officials-- came under even closer scrutiny. While few in number, these top cops illustrate the emergence of women as...

Cukier and Sidel provide a much-needed overview of the global problem of gun violence as a threat to public health, including the effects of violence, the sources of firearms (both legal and illegal), the factors shaping demand, and the interventions aimed at reducing the misuse of guns.

Just as guns know no borders, gun violence has become a global epidemic, killing hundreds of thousands of people each year and injuring many more. The toll is staggering. Experts estimate that there are 35,000 annual gun-related deaths in Brazil, 10,000 in South Africa, 20,000 in Colombia, and 30,000 in...

Before Enron, before Arthur Anderson, and before Worldcom, there was the Bank of New York money laundering scandal, which hit headlines in 1999. Promising to be one of the most important books on international organized crime, money laundering, and the complicity between legitimate and illegitimate businesses in both the United States and the former Soviet Union, among other places, during the last decade of the 20th century, "All Is Clouded by Desire" examines the criminal dealings that led to the revelation that the Bank of New York's Eastern European Division laundered $6 billion for...

Many people express shock and horror when they hear of a wealthy or famous person killing another person. As a society, we seem to expect the rich and famous to behave better, to commit fewer crimes, to be immune to the passions that inspire other, less prominent people to kill. After all, the rich and famous have everything--why would they need to murder? But the rich and famous kill for the very same reasons others do: love, power, money, jealousy, greed, revenge, and rage. Here, Scott takes us on a tour of murders committed by the rich and famous during the last century, looking at the...

Serial killers come from different backgrounds, attain different levels of education, and hold various types of jobs. However, many serial killers do have at least one thing in common: the desire to communicate regarding their crimes. Killers from Jack the Ripper to the Son of Sam often provide clues to their identities, their motives--even their future targets--through crime scene notes, letters to the media, calls to police, messages scrawled on victims, and, increasingly, email and other technology. Here, Gibson takes a look at ten notorious serial killers, their crimes, their victims,...

Of all crimes, murder fascinates the public more than any other. While considered a detestable act, for which society reserves its severest punishments, homicide still captivates the American public. But the way homicide and its investigation are depicted in our media fail to capture just how murders get solved. Here, Snow takes us on a tour of murder, its investigation, and its prosecution from the perspective of a seasoned homicide detective. From the commission of the crime to the collection of evidence, examination of the crime scene, roundup of suspects, interrogation, and resolution,...

Radical environmentalism and its progeny, eco-terrorism, is a modern phenomenon. It is a movement far removed from the elite conservationists of the late 1800s and the mainstream environmental groups that emerged later. Drawn from the same pool of concerned individuals who comprise memberships in groups like Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, and the Wilderness Society, disaffected environmentalists have turned from political lobbying to direct action in the form of widespread property destruction and other types of crime and terror. Here, the author exposes the activities of radical groups...