A CRIMINAL HISTORY OF MANKIND (PANTHER BOOKS) Book

Colin Wilson seeks to give a full history of crime in only 702 pages. Think that's a lot? Just consider all of history, all of the types of possible crime, and every country in the world...still think 702 pages is too much? I'm sorry to say that even after reading every long page of it - made to seem longer by some serious organization issues - I still found it woefully incomplete.

Wilson succeeds in giving a general overview of different types of crimes by placing violent crime into distinct categories. Although not backed up by much legitimate research, I found his criminal categories interesting. Much of the research on crime focuses on the criminals, and Wilson instead chooses to focus on the crimes. This makes for some interesting speculative reading on how crimes tend to trend based on other societal factors. Unfortunately, Wilson makes some pretty bold assumptions without much evidence other than anecdotal links provided by sample real-life cases. Interesting, but one can't make broad assumptions about all crime trends based on a few cases - especially when all of history all over the world is considered. In addition, the research used was already out of date and some of it already strongly refuted (especially considering some of the sex and race based research cited within) by the time this book was written. It was originally written in 1985, revised and republished in 2005; yet, much of the research comes from the 1960's-1970's.

There are plenty of gruesome depictions of lesser-known cases to keep crime buffs happy. There are some great points that warrant a closer look and detailed research. However, the part philosophical, part personal bias, part problematic research that make up this long tome keep if from being anything I could ever recommend.