Contemporary Issues In Criminology

Contemporary Criminological Issues tackles some of today’s most pressing social issues, from the criminalization of Indigenous peoples to interpersonal violence, border control, and armed conflicts. This book advances cutting-edge theories and methods, with the aim of moving beyond the scholarship that reproduces insecurity and exclusion. The breadth of approaches encompasses much of the current critical criminological scholarship, serving as a counterpoint to the growth of managerial and administrative criminologies and the rise of explicitly exclusionary and punitive state policies and practices with respect to ‘crime’ and ‘security.’ This edited collection featuring two books, one in English and one in French, includes important contributions to knowledge and public policy by eminent experts and emerging scholars. This book is published in English.

Policing, crime, poverty, prison management - these are just some of the key issues facing society today. This book addresses such issues, raising questions that should be of interest not only to academic criminologists but also to all those involved in the criminal justice system.

"This book is a collection of both empirical and theoretical chapters on some significant and enduring issues in Africa. The various chapter submissions are compelling and do make substantive contributions to the literature on criminology in Africa. The first chapter contends that crimes motivated by superstitious beliefs occur in wide-ranging contexts, and are often driven by socio-economic and political factors. The most vulnerable members of African communities are the primary victims of these crimes. Given the clandestine nature of superstitious induced crimes, it is imperative and relevant for government agencies in African countries to strategically collaborate with media and civil society organisations to launch massive public campaigns against all forms of superstition-driven crimes. The second chapter highlights some ethical and administrative challenges that a researcher could encounter in his/her quest to study incarcerated offenders. The study concludes that, while it is crucial to conduct a prison-based study, the researcher would have to adapt to institutional constraints of the respondents, to undertake considerable impression management and negotiations with both staff and inmates, and factor in the heightened security concerns that may affect the quality of the study and the safety of the researcher. The third chapter examines crimes against the state and the extent to which such issues are being tackled in Ghana. It concludes that the initiatives by various regimes to prosecute and to punish administrative crimes have yielded nominal outcomes. The fourth chapter probes the prison condition in South Africa (SA). The author argues that the prison situation is no better than those in other African countries. However, its historical racist system sets it apart from other African countries. The chapter concludes that the post-apartheid regimes' prison ideals have yet to be realized. The fifth chapter explores roles played by education, civil society organisations, and state institutions in the democratization and strengthening of the Ghanaian Criminal Justice System. Since Ghana relaunched its democratization initiative in 1992, the country has sustained successful presidential and parliamentary elections. Marked improvements have been seen in terms of human rights observation, freedoms, political tolerance, and openness to the global socio-economic and political landscape, yet there is still more room for improvement. The final chapter examines the lived experiences of students who have suffered crime on the University of Cape Coast campus. The analyzed data showed that factors such as negligence on the part of students, poor security services, and poor lighting systems on campus were the major contributing factors of crime (or conducive conditions for criminal activities). The study recommends that proper security measures such as the provision of tools and logistics and increasing the number of security personnel should be considered. This book is relevant for academicians in criminology, criminal lawyers, civil society organizations, policy makers, and human rights advocates"--

Contemporary Issues in Victimology: Identifying Patterns and Trends examines current topics in victimology and explores the main issues surrounding them. Key topics include: intimate partner violence and dating violence, rape and sexual assault on the college campus, Internet victimization, elder abuse, victimization of inmates, repeat and poly-victimization, fear of crime and perceived risk of crime, human trafficking, mass shootings, and child-to-parent violence. Each chapter includes information about the specific topic, including the nature of the issues, trends, current research, policy, current issues, and future challenges.

Designed to inspire conversation and critical thinking, Contemporary Issues in Criminal Justice presents students with a carefully selected collection of readings regarding timely and relevant issues within the criminal justice discipline. Readers are challenged to develop informed opinions on individual topics and then take a step back to consider all of the issues addressed to better understand the complex challenges of working within the criminal justice system.

In today's globalized society, an international exchange of ideas and views is indispensable within the field of social sciences, including criminology and criminal justice studies. The research group Governance of Security (GofS) fosters contemporary international discourses on issues of crime and crime control. In 2008, GofS started a research paper series, combining theoretical and empirical articles on issues reflecting the research activities of GofS. This research group is a collaboration between Ghent University and Ghent University College in Belgium. GofS concentrates its research around the study of administrative and judicial policy that have been developed with respect to new issues of crime and insecurity. The GofS series - Governance of Security Research Papers (GofS) - is published by Maklu Publishing (Belgium). Contemporary Issues in the Empirical Study of Crime - Volume 1 of GofS's series Governance of Security Research Papers - includes the following: Drugs and Crime: Are They Hand in Glove? A Review of Literature * The Study of Public Expenditure on Drugs: A Useful Evaluation Tool for Policy * Corporations as a Blind Spot in Research: Explanations for a Criminological Tunnel Vision * The Nominal Group Technique: A Participative Research Technique Holding Great Potential for Criminology * Analytical Criminology: A Style of Theorizing and Analyzing the Micro-Macro Context of Acts of Crime * The Geography of Social Cohesion and Crime at the Municipality Level * Disentangling Neighbourhood and School Contextual Variation in Serious Offending: Assessing the Effect of Ecological Disadvantage * Itinerant Crime Groups: Mobility Attributed to Anchor Points? * Patterns of Drug Use Before, During and After Detention: A Review of Epidemiological Literature.

Literature in the child abuse and child protection arena has tended to adopt either a practice or legal perspective. Drawing on their expertise as researchers and leaders in their field, Julia Davison and Antonia Bifulco offer a comprehensive and cohesive book on child abuse and child protection, drawing on both criminological and psychological perspectives on all forms of child maltreatment and child protection practice together with impacts on the victims. This book considers a range of areas, from definitions of child abuse and discussions of its prevalence, to an examination of the experiences of children in care, to international perspectives on children within the criminal justice system, to the emergence of online child abuse and the increasing awareness of historical abuse. Each chapter draws together key elements in the field, including prevalence and definition, different disciplinary approaches; different practice challenges; international impacts; and technological issues. Brief case studies throughout the book reflect the voice or experience of the child, ensuring that the focus remains on the child at the centre of the abuse. Balancing coverage of theory and research and considering implications for practice and policy, this book will appeal to a range of disciplines, including criminology, psychology, psychiatry, social work and law.