Understanding Criminology Book

Series editor's foreword     viii
Preface and acknowledgments to the 3rd edition     x
Introduction: understanding some key features of criminology     1
Some domain assumptions within criminology as a discipline     2
Criminology and modernity     2
How to define the criminal     5
What influences talk about crime?     6
What do we know about crime?     7
What is known about criminal victimization?     10
Criminology, politics and criminal justice policy     11
Conclusion: what are the key features of criminology?     14
Further reading     16
Perspectives in criminological theory     17
The behaviour of criminals     17
The criminality of behaviour     22
The criminality of the state     28
Conclusion     36
Further reading     36
Understanding 'right realism'     38
Socio-biological explanations: the work of Wilson and Herrnstein     39
Rational choice theory     42
The routine activity approach     44
Administrative criminology     45
Right realism: a critique     47
Ways of thinking about the family and crime     49
Conclusion     56
Further reading     58
Understanding 'left realism'     59
What is 'left realism'?     60
Left realism UK style: a critique     66
Left realism US style     74
The modernist dilemma     77
Left realism and New Labour: politics, policy and process     78
Conclusion     81
Further reading     82
Gendering the criminal     83
The gender blindness of criminology     83
Feminism and criminology     84
Feminisms and criminology: contradictions in terms?     89
Ways of thinking about men within criminology     90
Sex role theory and criminology     91
Categorical theory and criminology     95
Doing gender as criminology     96
Biography and the psychoanalytical turn     99
Reflections on masculinity and criminology     100
Summary: gendering the criminal or gendering criminology?     101
Conclusion     103
Further reading     104
Crime, politics and welfare     105
Understanding the welfare state     106
Why it is important to understand the relationship between the citizen and the state     111
New Labour, new policies? Young people and crime     113
Young people, crime and antisocial behaviour     115
Conclusion: questions for criminology     117
Further reading     118
Criminal victimization, politics and welfare     119
What is victimology?     119
A challenging victimology?     128
Rebalancing the criminal justice system     129
Feminism, policy and violence     136
Ethnicity and hate crimes     140
Conclusion: criminal victimization and social responsibility     142
Further reading     144
Conclusions: new directions for criminology?     145
Positivism, modernism and gender     145
A word on cultural criminology     148
Gender, race and class     150
Criminology and risk     151
Criminology and trust     154
Criminology, the citizen and the state     157
Criminology, political economy and social capital     159
Conclusion     160
Glossary     161
References     164
Index     177