Essential Criminology

List of Tables and Figures Preface and Acknowledgments 1 What Is Criminology? The Study of Crime, Criminals, and Victims in a Global Context Globalization What is Criminology? What is Victimology? Summary and Conclusion Discussion Questions 2 What is Crime? Defining the Problem Legal Definition Consensus and Conflict Approaches Hagan's Pyramid of Crime Crime Prism Application of the Prism to the Problem of School Violence Crimes of the Powerless Crimes of the Powerful Summary and Conclusion Discussion Questions 3 Classical, Neoclassical, and Rational Choice Theories The Preclassical Era The Classical Reaction Neoclassical Revisions Criminal Justice Implications: The Move to "Justice" Theory Redefining Rational Choice: Situational Factors and Routine Activities Theory Conceptual and Empirical Limitations: What the Research Shows Summary and Conclusion Summary Chart: Classical, Rational Choice and Routine Activities Theories Discussion Questions 4 "Born to Be Bad": Biological, Physiological and Biosocial Theories of Crime Biological and Positivistic Assumptions The Born Criminal Early U.S. Family-Type and Body-Type Theories Contemporary Biological Perspectives Biosocial Criminology: A Developmental Explanation of Crime Conceptual and Empirical Limitations Criminal Justice Policy Implications Summary and Conclusion Summary Chart: Biological Theory Discussion Questions 5 Criminal Minds: Psychiatric and Psychological Explanations for Crime From Sick Minds to Abnormal Behavior Shared Psychological Assumptions The Psychoanalytic Approach Trait-Based Personality Theories Behavioral, Situational, and Social Learning and Modeling Theories Cognitive Theories Ecological Psychology Evolutionary Psychology Summary and Conclusion Summary Chart: Psychological Theories of Crime Discussion Questions 6 Learning Criminal Behavior: Social Process Theories Common Themes and Different Assumptions Sutherland's Differential Association Theory Cognitive Social Learning Neutralization Theory: Learning Rationalizations as Motives Summary and Conclusion Summary Chart: Social Process Theories Discussion Questions 7 Failed Socialization: Control Theory, Social Bonds, and Labeling Control Theory: Learning not to Commit Crime Labeling Theory: A Special Case of Failed Socialization? Summary and Conclusion Summary Chart: Control Theory and Labeling Theory Discussion Questions 8 Crimes of Place: Social Ecology and Cultural Theories of Crime The Historical Roots of Social Ecology Theory Common Themes and Assumptions The Chicago School The New Social Ecology Theories Cultural Theories of Crime and Deviance Summary and Conclusion Summary Chart: Social Ecology Theory and Culture Conflict Theory Discussion Questions 9 The Sick Society: Anomie, Strain, and Subcultural Theory Common Themes and Assumptions Founders of Anomie and Strain Theory Recent Revisions to Anomie and Strain Theory Summary and Conclusion Summary Chart: Anomie and Strain Theory Discussion Questions 10 Capitalism as a Criminogenic Society: Conflict and Radical Theories of Crime Common Themes and Assumptions and some Key Differences The Roots of Conflict Criminology Contemporary Conflict Criminology The Roots of Radical Theory: Marx's Analysis of Capitalist Society Contemporary Radical Criminology Central Themes and Assumptions Summary and Conclusion Summary Chart: Conflict Theory and Radical Theory Discussion Questions 11 Patriarchy, Gender and Crime: Feminist Criminological Theory Common Themes and Assumptions Liberal Feminism Radical Feminism Marxist Feminism Socialist Feminism Gendered Theory Epistemological Issues and Postmodern Feminism Summary and Conclusion Summary Chart: Feminist Theory Discussion Questions 12 New Directions in Critical Criminological Theory Critical Criminologies Summary and Conclusion Summary Chart: Left Realism, Postmodern/Constitutive Theory and Abolition/Peacemaking Restorative Justice Discussion Questions Note 13 Conclusion: Toward a Unified Criminology Integrative Criminologies Reciprocal-Interactive Integrative Criminology Robert Agnew's Unifying Criminology Summary and Conclusion Discussion Questions Note References Index

Biography

Mark M Lanier