Criminological Perspectives — Essential Readings

McLaughlin (criminology, U. of Southampton, UK) and Muncie (criminology, Open U., UK) collect 56 historical and contemporary readings that introduce students to the nature of criminological knowledge. The readings relate to the origins of criminology through various subject positions and theoretical arguments, beginning with classicist interpretations of the function of law, positivist considerations of the causes of crime, quantitative studies of crime statistics, and Marxist, sociological, and anarchist critiques of crime, law, and the state and social order. Subsequent readings consider crime causation, with discussion of genetic factors, personality traits, risk factors, illegitimacy and the underclass, relative deprivation, the moral and expressive attractions of the preference of crime over non-crime, and crime as "routine activity"; criminalization, including readings from interactionist, labeling, social reaction, Marxist, cultural, and critical criminology perspectives; criminal justice and crime prevention, including deterrence, restoration, rehabilitation, and critiques of crime control systems from left realist and abolitionist perspectives; governance and surveillance technologies, practices, rationales, and strategies, and the dynamics, principles, infrastructures, frameworks, and social, political, and ethical implications of post-social control; and the future of the field, with discussion of globalization, poverty, the drug trade, terrorism, human rights, environmental issues, trade secrets, and technosocial networks. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)