Criminology: A Sociological Approach

Criminology: A Sociological Approach

Ideal for undergraduate courses in criminology--especially those taught from a critical perspective--<em>Criminology: A Sociological Approach</em>, Sixth Edition, is a comprehensive yet highly accessible introduction to the study of crime and criminological theory. Authors Piers Beirne and James W. Messerschmidt present the topic from a sociological standpoint, emphasizing the social construction of crime and showing how crime relates to gender, class, race, and age. Providing students with a strong theoretical foundation, the book also addresses historical, feminist, and comparative perspectives and highlights the major types of crime and victimization patterns.<br><br><strong>THE TEXT IS DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS:</strong><br>* Part I focuses on four questions: "What is crime?" "How are perceptions of it influenced by the mass media and by fear of<br>crime?" "How can we measure how much crime there is in the United States?" and finally, "How often does crime occur and with what degrees of seriousness?"<br>* Part II is a systematic guide to modern criminological theory and its historical development<br>* Part III examines specific types of crime, including property crime, interpersonal violence, white-collar crime, and political<br>crime, and it concludes with a chapter on comparative criminology and globalization<br><br>The sixth edition features new and up-to-date empirical data and also covers areas not included in many criminology texts, like cultural criminology, green criminology, whiteness and crime, the rape-war connection, Ponzi schemes, domestic right-wing terrorism, and state-sanctioned torture.<br>