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By M. David Ermann and Richard J. Lundman

Corporate and Governmental Deviance is the most complete and accessible treatment and exploration of the deviant behavior of big business and big government. Now in its fifth edition, this popular collection has been thoroughly updated to include an expanded introductory essay by the editors, new selections on corporate cover-ups, including such controversial issues as the Pinto fire hazards, the health risks associated with Rely tampons, as well as the current debates on excessive force by police and price-fixing. Moral issues within government, such as the rationalization of the use of genocide during the Nazi Holocaust, along with an essay of the media coverage and the public reactions to such crimes are covered as well. The new edition also retains the familiar classic essays by major scholars featured in previous editions. Intended for use in sociology and criminology courses, this book provides readers with an even clearer appreciation of the fact that organizations, and not just individuals, commit acts of deviance.

Oxford University Press, 1996, 331 pages

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By Katie Seidler

From prison interviews with violent offenders and a wealth of experience and research, psychologist Dr Katie Seidler explores the complex interaction between crime and culture. Featuring the voices of the offenders themselves, 15 convicted adult male violent offenders from various ethnic cultural communities explain their understanding, motivations and rationalisations for their actions and how these relate to questions of identity, community and responsibility within their cultural experience and values. In challenging current criminological theory, Dr Seidler suggests that offenders from group-oriented (collectivist) cultures offend for group-oriented reasons, whereas those from cultures prioritising individualism offend for individual reasons. This more nuanced understanding of crime and criminals within the context of culture adds significantly both to criminological theory, as well as providing suggestions for improvements to policing and offender management and rehabilitation within the criminal justice system.

Australian Academic Press, 2010

By Christopher Wildeman and Robert J. Sampson

Nearly 35 years ago, Sampson and Laub popularized the concept of desistance from crime and isolated core factors that promote and inhibit this process. In this article, we introduce the concept of intergenerational desistance and provide guidance on measuring and explaining this process, encouraging researchers to think of the life-course of crime in terms of both individuals and generations. We first review research on the intergenerational transmission of family criminality and criminal justice contact, relying also on research outside of criminology to highlight how using broader conceptions of the family, including social parents, entire generations, and three (or more) generations could enliven this area. Bridging these literatures allows us to then introduce the concept of intergenerational desistance and elaborate on the concept of intergenerational escalation and demonstrate how they can be measured using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN). We close by developing a research agenda for considering intergenerational desistance and escalation in ways that enhance our understanding of how the life-course of crime, criminal justice contact, and other troubles in life (e.g., with alcohol, drugs, and mental health) progress through families.

Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 7, Page 85 - 104

 By David C. Pyrooz, John Leverso, Jose Antonio Sanchez, and James A. Densley

For more than three decades, developmental and life-course criminology has been a source of theoretical advancement, methodological innovation, and policy and practice guidance, bringing breadth and depth even to well-established areas of study, such as gangs. This review demonstrates how the developmental and life-course perspective on gangs can be further extended and better integrated within broader developments in criminology. Accordingly, we structure this review within the fourfold paradigm on human development that unites seemingly disparate areas in the study of gangs: (a) historical time and place, or the foregrounding of when and where you are; (b) linked lives, or the importance of dynamic multiplex relationships; (c) timing, or the age-grading of trajectories and transitions; and (d) human agency, or taking choice seriously. We conclude by outlining a vision that charts new directions to be addressed by the next generation of scholarship on gangs.

Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 7, Page 105 - 127

By S. Giora Shoham and John Hoffman.

With depth, clarity and erudition, this primer covers all the classic theory and research on the sociology of crime. CONTENTS: 1. Criminology and Social Deviance. 2. Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Criminology. 3. Ecological Theories of Crime and Delinquency. 4. Anomie and Social Deviance: Strain Theories. 5. Differential Association and its Progeny. 6. Control Theories of Crime and Delinquency. 7. Social Reaction to Crime: Stigma and Interaction. 8. Conflict and Radical Perspectives on Crime. 9. Recent Developments in the Sociology of Crime. References. RECOMMENDED: Excellent text for upper division undergraduate classes, or beginning graduate classes. Strongly recommended as a substitute for those expensive, superficial introductory textbooks!

NY. Harrow and Heston Publishers. 2012.