Routledge Advances in Criminology – serie

One of the most elusive pursuits in the study of organized crime is developing a definition, description, or conceptual model that captures its complexity, diversity, and ever-changing nature. This book takes a comprehensive approach to unraveling the intricacies and variations of organized crime, providing a detailed account of its many attributes. Based on a review of the theoretical literature, the author has created a holistic typology essential to understanding organized crime. The typology comprises 28 attributes divided into five thematic categories: associational (the relationship among the offenders that leads to some discernible structure), commercial (revenue-generating crimes), operational (support functions and expenditures), institutional (factors that sustain a criminal association and activities over time), and cultural/behavioral (the norms, values, and codes of organized crime and how they affect the actions of offenders). These categories are not simply used to classify the different attributes; each one represents a structural pillar of an organized criminal association. As a meta-analytical framework, the typology is the first to incorporate the foremost ways in which organized crime has been conceptualized in the literature: as an association of offenders, the crimes perpetrated, how organized crimes are carried out, and as a form of underworld governance. The book also adapts the static typology into a flexible and testable conceptual model that recognizes the many variations among organized criminal associations, and which can be used to determine when a group of offenders constitutes organized crime. Besides their theoretical and empirical purposes, the typology and conceptual model have been constructed as applied frameworks for informing strategic enforcement (setting priorities), tactical enforcement (targeting and denigrating the structural pillars of an organized criminal association), and policy purposes (as a basis for a comprehensive multi-sectoral control plan).This book is invaluable for students and scholars studying organized crime as well as criminal justice professionals looking for guidance on enforcement strategies and public policies.

There are more than 20 theories that explain crime. Each theory has weaknesses, and no scholar knows which theory is best. To remedy this unsatisfactory situation a new research program of comparative theory testing is proposed. Comparing the theories with each other has not yet been successful. The alternative, suggested in this book, is to show how criminological theories must be modified if they are compared with a general behavioral theory. The book shows under which conditions the major criminological theories provide valid explanations of crime. The latter thus become integrated as parts of the general theory.The general theory that is chosen is a version of the theory of rational action. This is not the problematic version discussed in the literature, but states the real conditions of decision making and, thus, explains when people actually violate the law or remain law-abiding.The general theory is a component of a theoretical approach that explains individual behavior in interaction with societal (macro) conditions. This micro-macro approach is summarized in a proposed structural-cognitive model. This is part of the new program of Analytical Criminology. It suggests empirical theory comparison, process explanations, and micro-macro explanations.The book is not only written for readers who are interested in theories of crime and deviant behavior. It is also a treatise in "analytical" (i.e., rigorous) theory construction and empirical theory comparison.

Based on a reading of contemporary philosophical arguments, this book accounts for how punishment has provided audiences with pleasure in different historical contexts. Watching tragedies, contemplating hell, attending executions, or imagining prisons have generated pleasure, according to contemporary observers, in ancient Greece, in medieval Catholic Europe, in the early-modern absolutist states, and in the post-1968 Western world. The pleasure was often judged morally problematic, and raised questions about which desires were satisfied, and what the enjoyment was like. This book offers a research synthesis that ties together existing work on the pleasure of punishment. It considers how the shared joys of punishment gradually disappeared from the public view at a precise historic conjuncture, and explores whether arguments about the carnivalesque character of cruelty can provide support for the continued existence of penal pleasure. Towards the end of this book, the reader will discover, if willing to go along and follow desire to places which are full of pain and suffering, that deeply entwined with the desire for punishment, there is also the desire for social justice.An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, philosophy and all those interested in the pleasures of punishment.

Closing the Integration Gap in Criminology: The Case for Criminal Thinking offers a multi -stage model of theory integration that organizes verified risk factors around the construct of criminal thinking to provide an exemplar working paradigm for criminology. In the model, once relevant risk factors have been identified, they are organized into triads —three-variable networks of antecedent, mediating, or moderating effects—and then those triads are combined into clusters of thematically related constructs.While debate continues to rage over how to handle the burgeoning number of theories in criminology, little significant progress has been made in reducing the number of criminological theories. This book argues that theoretical integration is vital to the continued viability of criminological theory and to the growth and development of criminology as a scientific discipline. It posits that criminal thinking may be useful as a core variable in constructing a useful integrated theory for criminology, and maps out a plan for scholars to organize information for further study. The innovative theoretical approach in this book is essential reading for students, academics, and researchers in both criminology and forensic psychology concerned with the reduction of crime via scientific inquiry.

Social Bridges and Contexts in Criminology and Sociology brings together leading scholars to commemorate the illustrious career and enduring contributions of Professor James F. Short, Jr., to the social sciences. Although Professor Short is best known as a gang scholar, he was a bridging figure who advanced the study of human behavior across multiple domains.Individual chapters document Professor Short’s intellectual development and highlight the significance of his theoretical and empirical work in a range of specialty areas, including suicide and homicide, criminological theory, field and self-report survey research methodologies, white-collar crime, hazards and risks, levels of explanation, microsocial group processes, and the etiology of gang violence and delinquency. A special feature of this book is the collection of brief personal reflection essays appearing after the main chapters. Authored by Professor Short’s students, colleagues, collaborators, and friends, these essays provide powerful testimonials of the influence of his intellectual legacy as well as his generous spirit and commitment to mentorship.Written in a clear and direct style, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology and sociology, and all those interested in the important contributions of Professor James F. Short, Jr., to these subject areas.

Criminology and Democratic Politics brings together a range of international leading experts to consider the relationship between criminology and democratic politics. How does criminology relate to democratic politics? What has been the impact of criminology on crime and justice? How can we make sense of the uses, non-uses, and abuses of criminology? Such questions are far from new, but in recent times they have moved to the centre of debate in criminology in different parts of the world. The chapters in Criminology and Democratic Politics aim to contribute to this global debate. Chapters cover a range of themes such as punishment, knowledge, and penal politics; crime, fear, and the media; democratic politics and the uses of criminological knowledge; and the public role of criminology. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, and politics and all those interested in how criminology relates to democratic politics in modern times.

Some of the brightest minds in criminology who were nurtured on the strictly environmentalist paradigm of the 20th century have declared that biosocial criminology is the paradigm for the 21st century. This book attempts to unite this ever-growing field with the premier neurobiological theory of personality, otherwise known as reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST). Anthony Walsh places the highly variable number of biosocial approaches under a single theoretical umbrella, whilst providing a unique integrative framework.As the leading neurobiological theory of personality and behavior in psychology today, RST focuses around the age-old question of how naturally selfish social animals can achieve their wants and needs without alienating others in their social groups. RST posits that evolution has built into humans three interacting systems: the behavioral approach system; the behavioral inhibition system; and the fight/flight/freeze system. RST identifies the neurobiological and genetic functions underlying each system and has found a cascade of supporting evidence.Throwing new light on many areas of concern to criminologists, such as psychopathy, violence, ADHD, and schizophrenia, this book will be of interest to scholars and upper-level students in the field. Additional features such as Focus Boxes and diagrams delve into measurement techniques and brain areas.

Using in-depth field research and analysis of case studies, Mafia Violence: Political, Symbolic, and Economic Forms of Violence in Camorra Clans focuses attention on the phenomenon of violence performed by Italian organised crime groups, devoting specific attention to the Camorra, which has been responsible since the mid-1980s for almost half of all mafia homicides documented in Italy. The Camorra has acquired increased visibility at an international level due to its intense use of violence and high level of dangerousness, but until now, the study of the different forms of violence implemented by mafias has not received systematic attention at the scientific level. Hence, this book fills this gap by providing a both theoretical and empirical contribution toward the analysis of one of the most unknown – although highly visible and dangerous – dimension of mafias’ action. This collection of work by distinguished scholars provides a unique overview of the multifaceted characteristics of violence currently performed by mafia groups in Italy by focusing on specific actors – i.e., Camorra clans – but also other traditional mafia organisations such as Cosa Nostra and ’Ndrangheta; specific contexts – i.e., different territories and different markets, both legal and illegal; and specific practices and performances. Part I takes a diachronic and comparative perspective to provide an overview of mafias’ violence during the past 30 years, focusing on the three most prominent criminal organisations active in Italy: Camorra, Cosa Nostra, and ’Ndrangheta. Based on the outcomes of a major project carried out by a research group at the University of Naples Federico II from 2015 to 2017, Part II looks at the use of violence by Camorra clans, incorporating information from case studies, judicial files, law enforcement investigations, wiretappings, interviews with privileged observers, firsthand empirical data, and historical documents and social sciences literature.Using a multi-disciplinary approach drawing from criminology, sociology, history, anthropology, economics, political science, and geography, this book is essential reading for international researchers and practitioners interested in piecing together the full picture of modern organised crime.

Closing the Integration Gap in Criminology: The Case for Criminal Thinking offers a multi -stage model of theory integration that organizes verified risk factors around the construct of criminal thinking to provide an exemplar working paradigm for criminology. In the model, once relevant risk factors have been identified, they are organized into triads —three-variable networks of antecedent, mediating, or moderating effects—and then those triads are combined into clusters of thematically related constructs.While debate continues to rage over how to handle the burgeoning number of theories in criminology, little significant progress has been made in reducing the number of criminological theories. This book argues that theoretical integration is vital to the continued viability of criminological theory and to the growth and development of criminology as a scientific discipline. It posits that criminal thinking may be useful as a core variable in constructing a useful integrated theory for criminology, and maps out a plan for scholars to organize information for further study. The innovative theoretical approach in this book is essential reading for students, academics, and researchers in both criminology and forensic psychology concerned with the reduction of crime via scientific inquiry.

Surveys reveal that domestic abuse is more commonplace among teenagers and young adults than older populations, yet surprisingly little is written about young men’s involvement in it. Reporting on a three-year study based in the UK, this book explores young men’s involvement in domestic abuse, whether as victims, perpetrators or witnesses to violent behaviors between adults. Original survey data, focus group material and in-depth biographical interviews are used to make the case for a more thoroughgoing engagement with the meanings young men come to attribute to violent behavior, include the tendency among many to configure violence within families as "fights" that call for acts of male heroism. The book also highlights the dearth of services interventions for young men prone to domestic abuse, and the challenges of developing responsive practice in this area. Each section of the book highlights further online resources that those looking to conduct research in this area or apply its insights in practice can draw upon.

Social Bridges and Contexts in Criminology and Sociology brings together leading scholars to commemorate the illustrious career and enduring contributions of Professor James F. Short, Jr., to the social sciences. Although Professor Short is best known as a gang scholar, he was a bridging figure who advanced the study of human behavior across multiple domains.Individual chapters document Professor Short’s intellectual development and highlight the significance of his theoretical and empirical work in a range of specialty areas, including suicide and homicide, criminological theory, field and self-report survey research methodologies, white-collar crime, hazards and risks, levels of explanation, microsocial group processes, and the etiology of gang violence and delinquency. A special feature of this book is the collection of brief personal reflection essays appearing after the main chapters. Authored by Professor Short’s students, colleagues, collaborators, and friends, these essays provide powerful testimonials of the influence of his intellectual legacy as well as his generous spirit and commitment to mentorship.Written in a clear and direct style, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology and sociology, and all those interested in the important contributions of Professor James F. Short, Jr., to these subject areas.

Criminology and Democratic Politics brings together a range of international leading experts to consider the relationship between criminology and democratic politics. How does criminology relate to democratic politics? What has been the impact of criminology on crime and justice? How can we make sense of the uses, non-uses, and abuses of criminology? Such questions are far from new, but in recent times they have moved to the centre of debate in criminology in different parts of the world. The chapters in Criminology and Democratic Politics aim to contribute to this global debate. Chapters cover a range of themes such as punishment, knowledge, and penal politics; crime, fear, and the media; democratic politics and the uses of criminological knowledge; and the public role of criminology. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, and politics and all those interested in how criminology relates to democratic politics in modern times.

Based on a reading of contemporary philosophical arguments, this book accounts for how punishment has provided audiences with pleasure in different historical contexts. Watching tragedies, contemplating hell, attending executions, or imagining prisons have generated pleasure, according to contemporary observers, in ancient Greece, in medieval Catholic Europe, in the early-modern absolutist states, and in the post-1968 Western world. The pleasure was often judged morally problematic, and raised questions about which desires were satisfied, and what the enjoyment was like. This book offers a research synthesis that ties together existing work on the pleasure of punishment. It considers how the shared joys of punishment gradually disappeared from the public view at a precise historic conjuncture, and explores whether arguments about the carnivalesque character of cruelty can provide support for the continued existence of penal pleasure. Towards the end of this book, the reader will discover, if willing to go along and follow desire to places which are full of pain and suffering, that deeply entwined with the desire for punishment, there is also the desire for social justice.An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, philosophy and all those interested in the pleasures of punishment.

The contention that young people commit offences due to inadequate parenting and parental difficulties has been an abiding feature of the debates on juvenile offending. Previously this evidence has been used to design prevention programmes for young offenders who have been processed by the criminal justice system, but this book examines how this evidence can be used to prevent offending in the first place. Examining the relationship between the causes of youth offending and the legal duty of the state to address those causes, this book provides evidence to show that improving the family environment could be the most effective and enduring strategy for combating juvenile delinquency and associated behavioural, social and emotional problems. It examines how current child welfare legislation, in particular the Children Act 1989, could be employed to prevent children who are at risk of engaging in antisocial and delinquent behaviour from offending. It abandons the traditional ‘welfare vs. justice’ dichotomy and instead outlines a new approach which focuses on the rights and needs of young people in troubled circumstances and their families.

Conceived in the immediate aftermath of the humiliations and killings of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq, of the suicides and hunger strikes at Guantanamo Bay and of the disappearances of detainees through extraordinary rendition, this book explores the connections between these shameful events and the inhumanity and degradation of domestic prisons within the 'allied' states, including the USA, Canada, Australia, the UK and Ireland.The central theme is that the revelations of extreme brutality perpetrated by allied soldiers represent the inevitable end-product of domestic incarceration predicated on the use of extreme violence including lethal force. Exposing as fiction the claim to the political moral high ground made by western liberal democracies is critical because such claims animate and legitimate global actions such as the 'war on terror' and the indefinite detention of tens of thousands of people by the United States which accompanies it. The myth of moral virtue works to hide, silence, minimize and deny the brutal continuing history of violence and incarceration both within western countries and undertaken on behalf of western states beyond their national borders.

The contention that young people commit offences due to inadequate parenting and parental difficulties has been an abiding feature of the debates on juvenile offending. Previously this evidence has been used to design prevention programmes for young offenders who have been processed by the criminal justice system, but this book examines how this evidence can be used to prevent offending in the first place. Examining the relationship between the causes of youth offending and the legal duty of the state to address those causes, this book provides evidence to show that improving the family environment could be the most effective and enduring strategy for combating juvenile delinquency and associated behavioural, social and emotional problems. It examines how current child welfare legislation, in particular the Children Act 1989, could be employed to prevent children who are at risk of engaging in antisocial and delinquent behaviour from offending. It abandons the traditional ‘welfare vs. justice’ dichotomy and instead outlines a new approach which focuses on the rights and needs of young people in troubled circumstances and their families.

When corporations carry on their business in a grossly negligent manner, or take a cavalier approach to risk management, the consequences can be catastrophic. The harm may be financial, as occurred when such well-regarded companies as Enron, Lehman Brothers, Worldcom and Barings collapsed, or it may be environmental, as illustrated most recently by the Gulf oil spill. Sometimes deaths and serious injuries on a mass scale occur, as in the Bhopal gas disaster, the Chernobyl nuclear explosion, the Paris crash of the Concorde, the capsize of the Herald of Free Enterprise, and rail crashes at Southall, Paddington and Hatfield in England.What role can the law play in preventing such debacles and in punishing the corporate offenders? This collection of thematic papers and European country reports addresses these questions at both a theoretical and empirical level. The thematic papers analyse corporate criminal liability from a range of academic disciplines, including law, sociology/criminology, economics, philosophy and environmental studies, whilst the country reports look at the laws of corporate crime throughout Europe, highlighting both common features and irreconcilable differences between the various jurisdictions.

This book adopts a critical criminological approach to analyze the production, representation and role of crime in the emerging international order. It analyzes the role of power and its influence on the dynamics of criminalization at an international level, facilitating an examination of the geopolitics of international criminal justice. Such an approach to crime is well-developed in domestic criminology; however, this critical approach is yet to be used to explore the relationship between power, crime and justice in an international setting. This book brings together contrasting opinions on how courts, prosecutors, judges, NGOs, and other bodies act to reflexively produce the social reality of international justice. In doing this, it bridges the gaps between the fields of sociology, criminology, international relations, political science, and international law to explore the problems and prospects of international criminal justice and illustrate the role of crime and criminalization in a complex, evolving, and contested international society.

While most research has examined the legal, economic and psychological sides of gambling, this innovative collection offers a wide range of cultural perspectives on gambling organizations. Using both historical and present-day case studies from throughout the world, the authors seriously consider the rituals, symbols, the meanings, values, legitimations, relations (formal as well as informal), and the spaces and artifacts involved in the (re)production of gambling organizations. Contributors not only examine the global influence of commercial gambling, but also demonstrate how the local qualities of gambling organizations remain unique. This volume will be of interest to criminologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and all scholars of gambling.

Numerous criminologists have noted their dissatisfaction with the state of criminology. The need for a new paradigm for the 21st century is clear. However, many distrust biology as a factor in studies of criminal behavior, whether because of limited exposure or because the orientation of criminology in general has a propensity to see it as racist, classist, or at least illiberal. This innovative new book by noted criminologist Anthony Walsh dispels such fears, examining how information from the biological sciences strengthens criminology work and both complements and improves upon traditional theories of criminal behavior. With its reasoned case for biological science as a fundamental tool of the criminologist, Walsh's groundbreaking work will be required reading for all students and faculty within the field of criminology.

Surveys reveal that domestic abuse is more commonplace among teenagers and young adults than older populations, yet surprisingly little is written about young men’s involvement in it. Reporting on a three-year study based in the UK, this book explores young men’s involvement in domestic abuse, whether as victims, perpetrators or witnesses to violent behaviors between adults. Original survey data, focus group material and in-depth biographical interviews are used to make the case for a more thoroughgoing engagement with the meanings young men come to attribute to violent behavior, include the tendency among many to configure violence within families as "fights" that call for acts of male heroism. The book also highlights the dearth of services interventions for young men prone to domestic abuse, and the challenges of developing responsive practice in this area. Each section of the book highlights further online resources that those looking to conduct research in this area or apply its insights in practice can draw upon.

Numerous criminologists have noted their dissatisfaction with the state of criminology. The need for a new paradigm for the 21st century is clear. However, many distrust biology as a factor in studies of criminal behavior, whether because of limited exposure or because the orientation of criminology in general has a propensity to see it as racist, classist, or at least illiberal. This innovative new book by noted criminologist Anthony Walsh dispels such fears, examining how information from the biological sciences strengthens criminology work and both complements and improves upon traditional theories of criminal behavior. With its reasoned case for biological science as a fundamental tool of the criminologist, Walsh's groundbreaking work will be required reading for all students and faculty within the field of criminology.

By all accounts, China is the world leader in the number of legal executions. Its long historical use of capital punishment and its major political and economic changes over time are social facts that make China an ideal context for a case study of the death penalty in law and practice. This book examines the death penalty within the changing socio-political context of China. The authors'treatment of China' death penalty is legal, historical, and comparative. In particular, they examine; the substantive and procedures laws surrounding capital punishment in different historical periodsthe purposes and functions of capital punishment in China in various dynastieschanges in the method of imposition and relative prevalence of capital punishment over timethe socio-demographic profile of the executed and their crimes over the last two decades and comparative practices in other countries. Their analyses of the death penalty in contemporary China focus on both its theory - how it should be done in law - and actual practice - based on available secondary reports/sources.

This book examines the history of popular drug cultures and mediated drug education, and the ways in which new media - including social networking and video file-sharing sites - transform the symbolic framework in which drugs and drug culture are represented. Tracing the emergence of formal drug regulation in both the US and the United Kingdom from the late nineteenth century, it argues that mass communication technologies were intimately connected to these "control regimes" from the very beginning. Manning includes original archive research revealing official fears about the use of such mass communication technologies in Britain. The second half of the book assesses on-line popular drug culture, considering the impact, the problematic attempts by drug agencies in the US and the United Kingdom to harness new media, and the implications of the emergence of many thousands of unofficial drug-related sites.

Social class has been at the forefront of sociological theories of crime from their inception. It is explicitly central to some theories such as anomie/strain and conflict, and nips aggressively at the periphery of others such as social control theory. Yet none of these theories engage in a systematic exploration of what social class is, how individuals come to be placed in one rung of the class ladder rather than another, or the precise nature of the class-crime relationship. This book avers that the same factors that help to determine a person’s class level also help to determine that person’s risk for committing criminal acts. Social class is a modern outcome of primordial status-striving and requires explanation using the modern tools of genetics, neurobiology, and evolutionary biology, and this is what this book does. Many aspects of criminal behavior can be understood by examining the shared factors that lead to the success or failure in the workplace and to pro- or antisocial activities. A biosocial approach requires reducing sociology’s “master variable” to a lower level analysis to examine its constituent parts, which is resisted by many criminologists as highly controversial. However, this book makes plain that the more we know about the nature side of behavior the more important we find the nurture side to be. It makes clear how the class/crime relationship and criminology in general, can benefit from the biosocial perspective; a perspective that many criminological luminaries expect to be the dominant paradigm for the twenty first century.

This study provides a comprehensive critique - forensic, historical, and theoretical - of the moral panic paradigm, using empirically grounded ethnographic research to argue that the panic paradigm suffers from fundamental flaws that make it a myth rather than a viable academic perspective.

Accompanying China’s economic reform and open-door policy in 1978, illicit drug use emerged in the late 1980s, and gradually developed into a serious social problem. Heroin was the dominant illicit drug consumed in the new drug epidemic, and the number of female heroin users has increased rapidly in the country. While heroin use in China is soaring, little is known about women’s heroin use in the context of China’s rapidly changing society. Using intensive interviews with 131 female heroin users, this book explores the careers of female heroin users in China under changing social contexts in the reform era. It investigates the impacts of sociological and individual factors on women’s heroin use in each developing stage of their drug use careers. It also examines the social consequences of women’s heroin use by looking at connections between women’s heroin use and criminality, and the change in women’s social relations after heroin use. Lastly, the book analyzes and ascertains the impact of current narcotics control policies on women’s drug use careers. This groundbreaking book has important policy implications for both China and the international society in the context of increasing global concern about women’s substance abuse.

When everyday social situations and cultural phenomena come to be associated with a threat to security, security becomes a value which competes with other values – particularly the right to privacy and human rights. In this comparison, security appears as an obvious choice over the loss of some aspects of other values and is seen as a reasonable and worthwhile sacrifice because of what security promises to deliver. When the value of security is elevated to the top of the collective priorities, it becomes a meta-frame, a reference point in relation to which other aspects of social life are articulated and organized. With the tendency to treat a variety of social issues as security threats and the public’s growing acceptance of surveillance as an inevitable form of social control, the security meta-frame rises to the level of a dominant organizing principle in such a way that it shapes the parameters and the conditions of daily living. This volume offers case studies from multiple countries that show how our private and public life is shaped by the security meta-frame and surveillance. It is essential reading for everyone who is interested in the changes to be faced in social life, privacy, and human freedoms during this age of security and surveillance.

Antisocial behaviour is becoming a universally accepted problem and one that dominates the political and popular imagination. By providing a new criminological framework for understanding the fear of crime, this book reposes the increasingly important debate around antisocial behaviour and the internationally understood idea of moral panics. Through a critical engagement with theories of risk, the book develops Furedi’s understanding of a Culture of Fear to illustrate how firstly, society today is best understood to be in a permanent state of anxiety, and secondly, how this state of affairs has arisen due to the collapse of traditional politics and morality, and equally, of radical alternatives to it. Central to Waiton's thesis is an explanation of the changing therapeutic relationship between the individual and society based on an understanding of diminished subjectivity and the newly emerged vulnerable public.