Synopses & Reviews
Textbook on Criminology offers an engaging and wide-ranging account of crime and criminology. It provides a clear and comprehensive consideration of the theoretical, practical, and political aspects of the subject, including the influence of physical, biological, psychological, and social factors on criminality. The text is ideal both for law students studying criminology modules, and for students studying criminological theory modules as part of their criminology degrees.
The author deals with the major questions of criminology such as 'How do you define a crime?', 'Why do people become criminals?', and 'How should we deal with criminals?' Each question is studied from an objective and academic viewpoint and encourages greater social, political, and philosophical awareness of crime, criminals, and society's response to them. The text also maps out the changes in crime control and society's expectations in relation to crime control, and encourages greater social, political, and philosophical awareness of crime, criminals, and society's response to them.
The text also maps out the changes in crime control and society's expectations in relation to crime control, and students will find the insightful chapter on terrorism and state violence to be of particular interest and relevance in light of recent global events.
Synopsis
Now in its fifth edition, this book continues to provide a comprehensive approach and overview of the subject of Criminology as a whole. Including a new chapter on State and Terrorism and major revisions to several other chapters, this new edition aims to give the reader guidelines on the issues at stake and help on how to best find the answers using biological, psychological and sociological theories.
About the Author
Katherine Williams is Lecturer in Law at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Prior to this she taught at the University of Liverpool for nine years. Her main teaching areas are criminology, criminal justice, human rights and welfare law, and social policy. As well as her work on criminology she has recently published in the areas of criminal justice, computer law, and child sexual abuse.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Definitions, Terminology and the Criminal Process
3. Public Conceptions and Misconceptions of Crime
4. The Extent of Crime: A Comparison of Official and Unofficial Calculations
5. Victims, Victimisations and Victimology
6. Influences of Physical Factors and Genetics of Criminality
7. Influences of Biochemical Factors and of the Central and Autonomic Nervous Systems on Criminality
8. Psychological Theories of Criminality
9. Mental Disorder and Criminality
10. Intelligence and Learning
11. The Sociology of Criminality
12. Anomie, Strain and Juvenile Subculture
13. Control Theories
14. Labelling, Phenomenology and Ethnomethodology
15. Conflict Theories and Radical Criminologies
16. Criminology and Realism
17. Positivist Explanations of Female Criminality
18. Women's Liberation and Feminist Theories
19. Governance, Risk and Globalisation Theories
20. Terrorism and its Control
21. Envoi