Filled with real world examples derived from media reports on crime trends and other sources, this fully updated Second Edition analyzes the specific errors that can occur in the three most common methods used to report crime—official crime data, self report, and victimization studies. For each method, the authors examine strengths and weaknesses, the fundamental issues surrounding accuracy, and the method's application to theoretical and policy research. Throughout the book, the authors demonstrate the factors that underlie crime data and illustrate the fundamental links between theory, policy, and data measurement.
A unique look at the problems in measuring crime both historically and internationally Filled with real world examples derived from media reports on crime trends and other sources, this fully updated Second Edition analyzes the specific errors that can occur in the three most common methods used to report crime—official crime data, self report, and victimization studies. For each method, the authors examine strengths and weaknesses, the fundamental issues surrounding accuracy, and the method′s application to theoretical and policy research. Throughout the book, the authors demonstrate the factors that underlie crime data and illustrate the fundamental links between theory, policy, and data measurement.
The definitive refutation to the argument of The Bell Curve. When published in 1981, The Mismeasure of Man was immediately hailed as a masterwork, the ringing answer to those who would classify people, rank them according to their supposed genetic gifts and limits. And yet the idea of innate limits—of biology as destiny—dies hard, as witness the attention devoted to The Bell Curve, whose arguments are here so effectively anticipated and thoroughly undermined by Stephen Jay Gould. In this edition Dr. Gould has written a substantial new introduction telling how and why he wrote the book and tracing the subsequent history of the controversy on innateness right through The Bell Curve. Further, he has added five essays on questions of The Bell Curve in particular and on race, racism, and biological determinism in general. These additions strengthen the book's claim to be, as Leo J. Kamin of Princeton University has said, "a major contribution toward deflating pseudo-biological 'explanations' of our present social woes."
This book addresses the measurement of crime both historically and cross-nationally. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of each data source, the fundamental issues surrounding their accuracy, and the applications of these data in theoretical and policy research.
Criminological Theory: The Essentials, Fourth Edition by Stephen G. Tibbetts and Alex R. Piquero is a brief yet comprehensive overview of the major concepts and perspectives of the key theories in the evolution of criminology. Putting criminological theory in context, the acclaimed authors examine policy implications brought about by theoretical perspectives to show students the practical application of theories to contemporary social problems. The new edition has been thoroughly updated with the latest theoretical extensions and empirical research, with links made to specific theories and recent events.
Providing an overview of the sociological approaches to law and criminal justice, this book focuses on how law and the criminal justice system inevitably affect one another, and the ways in which both are intimately connected with wider social forces.
A collection of original essays addressing theories of criminal behavior that is written at a level appropriate for undergraduate students. This book offers section introductions that provide a historical background for each theory, key issues that the theory addresses, and a discussion of any controversies generated by the theory.
A critical examination of crime waves aimed at an undergraduate audience. Historical & contemporary examples are drawn primarily from the US, but international examples are threaded throughout for comparison.
Crime control continues to be a growth industry, despite the drop in crime indicators throughout the nation. This volume shows how state-of-the-art geographic information systems (GIS) are revolutionizing urban law enforcement, with an award-winning program in New York City leading the way. Electronic "pin mapping" is used to display the incidence of crime, to stimulate effective strategies and decision making, and to evaluate the impact of recent activity applied to hotspots. The expert information presented by 12 contributors will guide departments without such tools to understand the latest technologies and successfully employ them. Besides describing and assessing cutting-edge techniques of crime mapping, this book emphasizes: * the organizational and intellectual contexts in which spatial analysis of crime takes place, * the technical problems of defining, measuring, interpreting, and predicting spatial concentrations of crime, * the common use of New York City crime data, and * practical applications of what is known (e.g., a review of mapping and analysis software packages using the same data set). Students, academics, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in the areas of criminal justice, corrections, geography, social problems, law and government, public administration, and public policy analysis will need to look at the interdisciplinary nature of both GIS and spatial dimensions of crime in order to comprehend the variety of different approaches address important analytic problems, reassess public facilities and resources, and prepare to respond more quickly to emerging hotspots.