The Ashgate Research Companion To Biosocial Theories Of Crime

In response to exciting developments in genetics, neuroscience and evolutionary psychology, a number of criminologists have embraced the position that criminal behaviour is the product of biological, psychological, and sociological factors operating together in complex ways. They have come to realize that if they are to capture the dynamic nature of criminal behaviour then they must span multiple levels of analysis and thus multiple disciplines. The explosion of interest in this field of biosocial criminology over the past ten years means that the time is ripe for this research companion aimed at graduate students and scholars, giving them an essential overview of the current state of research in the field. The authors are experts in a variety of disciplines (sociology, psychology, biology, criminal justice, and neuroscience), but they all have in common a strong interest in criminal behaviour. This unique book is essential and accessible reading for all students and scholars in the field.

This work spans multiple levels of analysis and thus multiple disciplines, offering an essential overview of the current state of research in the field. The authors are experts in a variety of disciplines (sociology, psychology, biology, criminal justice, and neuroscience), but they all have in common a strong interest in criminal behaviour. This unique book will be essential and accessible reading for all students and scholars in the field.

In response to exciting developments in genetics, neuroscience and evolutionary psychology, a number of criminologists have embraced the position that criminal behaviour is the product of biological, psychological, and sociological factors operating together in complex ways. They have come to realize that if they are to capture the dynamic nature of criminal behaviour then they must span multiple levels of analysis and thus multiple disciplines. The explosion of interest in this field of biosocial criminology over the past ten years means that the time is ripe for this research companion aimed at graduate students and scholars, giving them an essential overview of the current state of research in the field. The authors are experts in a variety of disciplines (sociology, psychology, biology, criminal justice, and neuroscience), but they all have in common a strong interest in criminal behaviour. This unique book is essential and accessible reading for all students and scholars in the field.

Introduction to Criminology, Why Do They Do It?, Second Edition, by Pamela J. Schram Stephen G. Tibbetts, offers a contemporary and integrated discussion of the key theories that help us understand crime in the 21st century. With a focus on why offenders commit crimes, this bestseller skillfully engages students with real-world cases and examples to help students explore the fundamentals of criminology. To better align with how instructors actually teach this course, coverage of violent and property crimes has been integrated into the theory chapters, so students can clearly understand the application of theory to criminal behavior. Unlike other introductory criminology textbooks, the Second Edition discusses issues of diversity in each chapter and covers many contemporary topics that are not well represented in other texts, such as feminist criminology, cybercrime, hate crimes, white-collar crime, homeland security, and identity theft. Transnational comparisons regarding crime rates and the methods other countries use to deal with crime make this edition the most universal to date and a perfect companion for those wanting to learn about criminology in context.

A comprehensive one-stop reference text, The Routledge Companion to Criminological Theory and Concepts (the ‘Companion’) will find a place on every bookshelf, whether it be that of a budding scholar or a seasoned academic. Comprising over a hundred concise and authoritative essays written by leading scholars in the field, this volume explains in a clear and inviting way the emergence, context, evolution and current status of key criminological theories and conceptual themes. The Companion is divided into six historical and thematic parts, each introduced by the editors and containing a selection of accessible and engaging short essays written specifically for this text: Foundations of criminological thought and contemporary revitalizations The emergence and growth of American criminology From appreciation to critique Late critical criminologies and new directions Punishment and security Geographies of crime Comprehensive cross-referencing between entries will provide the reader with signposts to later developments, to critiques and to associated theoretical developments explored within the book, and lists of further reading in every entry will encourage independent thinking and study. This book is an essential reference work for criminology students at all levels and is the perfect companion for courses on criminological theory.

Developed by Bruno Latour and his collaborators, actor-network theory (ANT) offers crimes studies a worthy intellectual challenge. It requires us to take the performativity turn, consider the role of objects in our analysis and conceptualize all actants (human and non-human) as relational beings. Thus power is not the property of one party, but rather it is an effect of the relationships among actants. This innovative collection provides a series of empirical and theoretical contributions that shows: ¢ The importance of conceptualizing and analyzing technologies as crucial actants in crime and crime control. ¢ The many facets of ANT: its various uses, its theoretical blending with other approaches, its methodological implications for the field. ¢ The fruitfulness of ANT for studying technologies and crime studies: its potential and limitations for understanding the world and revamping crime studies research goals. Students, academics and policy-makers will benefit from reading this collection in order to explore criminology-related topics in a different way.

Criminologists can benefit from questioning the underlying assumptions upon which they rest their work. Philosophy has the ability to clarify our thoughts, inform us of why we think about things the way we do, solve contradictions in our thinking we never knew existed, and even dissolve some dichotomies we thought were cast in stone. One of those dichotomies is free will vs. determinism. Criminology must reckon with both free will and agency, as posited by some theories, and determinism, as posited by others—including the ever more influential fields of genetics and biosocial criminology. Criminological Theory: Assessing Philosophical Assumptions examines philosophical concepts such as these in the context of important criminological theories or issues that are foundational but not generally considered in the literature on this topic. The uniqueness of this treatment of criminological theory is that rather than reporting what this person or that has said about a particular theory, Walsh exposes the philosophical assumptions underlying the theory. Students and scholars learn to clarify their own biases and better analyze the implications of a broad range of theories of crime and justice.

Although the issue of offender decision-making pervades almost every discussion of crime and law enforcement, only a few comprehensive texts cover and integrate information about the role of decision-making in crime. The Oxford Handbook of Offender Decision Making provide high-quality reviews of the main paradigms in offender decision-making, such as rational choice theory and dual-process theory. It contains up-to-date reviews of empirical research on decision-making in a wide range of decision types including not only criminal initiation and desistance, but also choice of locations, times, targets, victims, methods as well as large variety crimes including homicide, robbery, domestic violence, burglary, street crime, sexual crimes, and cybercrime. Lastly, it provides in-depth treatments of the major methods used to study offender decision-making, including experiments, observation studies, surveys, offender interviews, and simulations. Comprehensive and authoritative, the Handbook will quickly become the primary source of theoretical, methodological, and empirical knowledge about decision-making as it relates to criminal behavior.