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A law professor and former prosecutor reveals how inconsistent ideas about violence, enshrined in law, are at the root of the problems that plague our entire criminal justice system—from mass incarceration to police brutality. We take for granted that some crimes are violent and others aren’t. But how do we decide what counts as a violent act? David Alan Sklansky argues that legal notions about violence—its definition, causes, and moral significance—are functions of political choices, not eternal truths. And these choices are central to failures of our criminal justice system. The common distinction between violent and nonviolent acts, for example, played virtually no role in criminal law before the latter half of the twentieth century. Yet to this day, with more crimes than ever called “violent,” this distinction determines how we judge the seriousness of an offense, as well as the perpetrator’s debt and danger to society. Similarly, criminal law today treats violence as a pathology of individual character. But in other areas of law, including the procedural law that covers police conduct, the situational context of violence carries more weight. The result of these inconsistencies, and of society’s unique fear of violence since the 1960s, has been an application of law that reinforces inequities of race and class, undermining law’s legitimacy. A Pattern of Violence shows that novel legal philosophies of violence have motivated mass incarceration, blunted efforts to hold police accountable, constrained responses to sexual assault and domestic abuse, pushed juvenile offenders into adult prisons, encouraged toleration of prison violence, and limited responses to mass shootings. Reforming legal notions of violence is therefore an essential step toward justice.
Comprehensive and accessible, Tim Newburn’s bestselling Criminology provides an introduction to the fundamental themes, concepts, theories, methods and events that underpin the subject and form the basis for all undergraduate degree courses and modules in Criminology and Criminal Justice. This third edition includes: A new chapter on politics, reflecting the ever increasing coverage of political influence and decision making on criminology courses New and updated crime data and analysis of trends, plus new content on recent events such as the Volkswagen scandal, the latest developments on historic child abuse, as well as extended coverage throughout of the English riots A fully revised and updated companion website, including exam, review and multiple choice questions, a live Twitter feed from the author providing links to media and academic coverage of events related to the concepts covered in the book, together with links to a dedicated textbook Facebook page Fully updated to reflect recent developments in the field and extensively illustrated, this authoritative text, written by a leading criminologist and experienced lecturer, is essential reading for all students of Criminology and related fields.
This collection of essays reflects on the processes of defining crime, and considers the varied and complex implications of our decisions to criminalize certain unwanted behaviour. Employing various case studies, the contributors reflect on the social processes that inform definitions of crime, criminal law, and its enforcement, while illuminating the subjective nature of crime and questioning the role of law in dealing with complex social issues.
For decades, scholars have disagreed about what kinds of behavior count as crime. Is it simply a violation of the criminal law? Is it behavior that causes serious harm? Is the seriousness affected by how many people are harmed and does it make a difference who those people are? Are crimes less criminal if the victims are black, lower class, or foreigners? When corporations victimize workers is that a crime? What about when governments violate basic human rights of their citizens, and who then polices governments? In What Is Crime? the first book-length treatment of the topic, contributors debate the content of crime from diverse perspectives: consensus/moral, cultural/relative, conflict/power, anarchist/critical, feminist, racial/ethnic, postmodernist, and integrational. Henry and Lanier synthesize these perspectives and explore what each means for crime control policy.
What is the definition of ′crime′? Law and Crime helps the criminologist to understand how the law constructs crime and how one might engage in critical analysis of such legal constructions. It uses a thematic approach to comprehensively explore the relationship between criminal conduct, criminal justice and the law. The book introduces key topics in criminal law scholarship for criminologists, including: criminalization fault and criminal responsibility corporate liability the production of criminal guilt the nature of judicial punishment. Aimed at students with no prior knowledge of law, the book includes many useful features to enhance understanding, from chapter overviews and key terms to study questions and suggestions for further reading. The Key Approaches to Criminology series celebrates the removal of traditional barriers between disciplines and, specifically, reflects criminology’s interdisciplinary nature and focus. It brings together some of the leading scholars working at the intersections of criminology and related subjects. Each book in the series helps readers to make intellectual connections between criminology and other discourses, and to understand the importance of studying crime and criminal justice within the context of broader debates. The series is intended to have appeal across the entire range of undergraduate and postgraduate studies and beyond, comprising books which offer introductions to the fields as well as advancing ideas and knowledge in their subject areas.
Criminology is a broad-ranging and stimulating introduction that is ideal for undergraduates approaching the subject for the first time. Each chapter is written by an expert in their field and includes a range of learning features designed to help students engage with the material covered.
In the past twenty years, international criminal law has become one of the main areas of international legal scholarship and practice. Most textbooks in the field describe the evolution of international criminal tribunals, the elements of the core international crimes, the applicable modes of liability and defences, and the role of states in prosecuting international crimes. The Oxford Handbook of International Criminal Law, however, takes a theoretically informed and refreshingly critical look at the most controversial issues in international criminal law, challenging prevailing practices, orthodoxies, and received wisdoms. Some of the contributions to the Handbook come from scholars within the field, but many come from outside of international criminal law, or indeed from outside law itself. The chapters are grounded in history, geography, philosophy, and international relations. The result is a Handbook that expands the discipline and should fundamentally alter how international criminal law is understood.
A revelatory account of the misdemeanor machine that unjustly brands millions of Americans as criminals. Punishment Without Crime offers an urgent new interpretation of inequality and injustice in America by examining the paradigmatic American offense: the lowly misdemeanor. Based on extensive original research, legal scholar Alexandra Natapoff reveals the inner workings of a massive petty offense system that produces over 13 million cases each year. People arrested for minor crimes are swept through courts where defendants often lack lawyers, judges process cases in mere minutes, and nearly everyone pleads guilty. This misdemeanor machine starts punishing people long before they are convicted; it punishes the innocent; and it punishes conduct that never should have been a crime. As a result, vast numbers of Americans -- most of them poor and people of color -- are stigmatized as criminals, impoverished through fines and fees, and stripped of drivers' licenses, jobs, and housing. For too long, misdemeanors have been ignored. But they are crucial to understanding our punitive criminal system and our widening economic and racial divides. A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2018
Over the past two centuries, many aspects of criminal behavior have been investigated. Finding this information and making sense of it all is difficult when many studies would appear to offer contradictory findings. The Handbook of Crime Correlates collects in one source the summary analysis of crime research worldwide. It provides over 400 tables that divide crime research into nine broad categories: - Pervasiveness and intra-offending relationships - Demographic factors - Ecological and macroeconomic factors - Family and peer factors - Institutional factors - Behavioral and personality factors - Cognitive factors - Biological factors - Crime victimization and fear of crime Within these broad categories, tables identify regions of the world and how separate variables are or are not positively or negatively associated with criminal behavior. Criminal behavior is broken down into separate offending categories of violent crime, property crime, drug offenses, sex offenses, delinquency, general and adult offenses, and recidivism. Accompanying each table is a description of what each table indicates in terms of the positive or negative association of specific variables with specific types of crime by region. This book should serve as a valuable resource for criminal justice personnel and academics in the social and life sciences interested in criminal behavior.
Americans are fascinated with crime, criminals, and criminal justice. For all the public interest, however, relatively little is known about these topics that dominate newspaper headlines each and every day in the United States. This book provides readers with an accurate and up-to-date picture of crime and justice in the United States. Myths and Realities of Crime and Justice: What Every American Should Know addresses the major topics in this broad field and presents recent findings from criminologists and criminal justice practitioners in a reader-friendly manner. Combining up-to-date facts with an engaging narrative, this book will dispel many of the preconceived notions and distorted pictures about crime and justice that continue to perpetuate in the United States. This one-of-a-kind criminal justice book offers everything you need to know about crime, criminals, police. Book jacket.