By Increase Mather.

Or, a sermon (preached at the lecture in Boston in New-England the 18th day of the 1 moneth 1674, when two men were executed, who had murthered their master) wherein is shewed that excesse in wickedness doth bring untimely death.

Boston: John Foster, 1879. 25p.

By The Committee of Fifteen

With special reference to conditions existing in the city of New York. . “In the fall of 1900, the city of New York was startled by discoveries in regard to the spread of the Social Evil in certain districts, and as to the extent of flagrant offences against public morality and common decency. A meeting of citizens was held at the Chamber of Commerce in November, as a result of which the Committee of Fifteen was called into existence. The objects which the Committee of Fifteen undertook to accomplish were thereupon stated as follows : (1) To institute a searching inquiry, uninfluenced by partisan considerations, into the causes of the present alarming increase of gambling and the Social Evil in this city, and to collect such evidence as shall establish the connection between existing conditions and those who, in the last analysis, are responsible for these conditions. (2) To publish the results of such investigations in order to put our fellow-citizens in possession of facts, and to enable them to adopt such corrective measures as may be needed. (3) To promote such legislation as shall render it less difficult to reach offenders, and as shall put an end to the shifting and division of responsibility in the local administration of the laws relating to vice and crime, to the end that public officers and their subordinates may be held to a strict accountability for their acts. (4) To suggest and promote the provision of more wholesome conditions and surroundings, in order to lessen the allurements and incentives to vice and crime.”

New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1902. 188p.

By William W. Sanger.

Its Extent, Causes and Effects Throughout the World. “The history of prostitution around the world from the earliest Egyptian Courtesans to those night houses or street vendors of the late to 19th century. Arguments are unnecessary to prove the existence of prostitution. The evil is so notorious that none can possibly gainsay it. But when its extent, its causes, or its effects are questioned, a remarkable degree of ignorance or carelessness is manifested. Few care to know the secret springs from which prostitution emanates; few are anxious to know how wide the stream ex tends; few have any desire to know the devastation it causes. Society has formally laid a prohibition on the subject, and he who presumes to argue that what affects one may injure all; he who believes that the malady in his neighbor's family to-day may visit his own to-morrow ; he who dares to intimate that a vice which has blighted the happiness of one parent, and ruined the character of one daughter, may produce, must inevitably produce, the same sad results in another circle ; in short, he who dares allude to the subject of prostitution in any other than a mysterious and whispered manner, must prepare to meet the frowns and censure of society.”

New York: The Medical Publishing Co., 1899. 709p.

By Andreas Bjerre.

A Study in Criminal Psychology. “The subject has attracted many writers before Bjerre—philosophers, doctors, lawyers and essayists. But Bjerre has approached the problem from an entirely new point of view. He has not contented himself with wide generalizations, or with the treatment of such second-hand material as criminal statistics, reports of trials, hospital and prison journals or other superficial data, however obtained He has devoted many years of his life to first-hand study in Swedish prisons in order by constant personal association with criminals to solve the riddles hidden away in the dark places of their psychic lives.” (Preface).

Longmans, Green and Co. ltd., 1927. 182p.

By George A. Thacher.

Murder Myusteries Revealed. “I did not feel confident that the list was entirely accurate, but I realized that every day association with the prisoners probably made the designation of defective by these men worthy of thoughtful consideration at least. In jotting down the names of these prisoners I asked what offenses they had committed. In this list approximating 70 defective prisoners 36 were serving sentences for rape and of the 36 there were 13 who had raped their own daughters. One prisoner was serving his third term for this same offense. Seventeen of these prisoners were guilty of the offense which has made ancient Sodom a byword through the centuries. Six of these men had committed murder and all of the six were sex perverts. Naturally these defective beings often have a defective moral sense. My observation has often confirmed that fact. Kraft Ebing remarks that this psychic degeneration, however, has a more profound pathological foundation, because often it can be referred to distinct cerebro-pathologic conditions, and often enough is associated with anatomic signs of degeneration.”

Portland, OR: Press of Pacific Coast Rescue and Protective Society, 1919. 121p.

By Robert Anderson.

Some Facts and Suggestions,. “It is to the public therefore that this volume is addressed. For if the public became alive to the fact that all the principal offences against property are the work of small bands of professional criminals, and that the professional criminal is the creature of our punishment of crime system, we should soon have a popular outcry in favour of the reforms here advocated.” (from Preface)

London: James Nisbet & Co., 1907. 204p.

By Carolijn Terwindt.

Politics and Law in Liberal Democracies.How does protest become criminalised? Applying an anthropological perspective to political and legal conflicts, Carolijn Terwindt urges us to critically question the underlying interests and logic of prosecuting protesters. The book draws upon ethnographic research in Chile, Spain, and the United States to trace prosecutorial narratives in three protracted contentious episodes in liberal democracies. Terwindt examines the conflict between Chilean landowners and the indigenous Mapuche people, the Spanish state and the Basque independence movement, and the United States' criminalisation of 'eco-terrorists.' Exploring how patterns and mechanisms of prosecutorial narrative emerge through distinct political, social and democratic contexts, Terwindt shines a light on how prosecutorial narratives in each episode changed significantly over time. Challenging the law and justice system and warning against relying on criminal law to deal with socio-political conflicts, Terwindt's observations have implications for a wide range of actors and constituencies, including social movement activists, scholars, and prosecutors.

London: Pluto Press, 2020. 305p.

Edited by Stefan Amirell, Hans Hägerdal, Bruce Buchan.

In a modern global historical context, scholars have often regarded piracy as an essentially European concept which was inappropriately applied by the expanding European powers to the rest of the world, mainly for the purpose of furthering colonial forms of domination in the economic, political, military, legal and cultural spheres. By contrast, this edited volume highlights the relevance of both European and non-European understandings of piracy to the development of global maritime security and freedom of navigation. It explores the significance of ‘legal posturing’ on the part of those accused of piracy, as well as the existence of non-European laws and regulations regarding piracy and related forms of maritime violence in the early modern era. The authors in Piracy in World History highlight cases from various parts of the early-modern world, thereby explaining piracy as a global phenomenon.

Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021. 290p.

By Roger Lane.

This book is a history of criminal homicide, or murder, in America. Murder is one of the two most common forms of intentional homicide, defined simply as the killing of one human being by another; the other is war. The third, capital punishment, is linked to both; death may be decreed either for failing to kill when a society demands it or for killing when a society forbids it. All three forms are linked in other, sometimes surprising ways. But while war has been a main—perhaps the main— subject of traditional history, historians have only newly turned their attention to criminal homicide.

Columbus, OH: Ohio State University, 1997. 399p.

Edited by Jörg-Martin Jehle / Stefan Harrendorf.

The study presented in this book is a direct response to the needs for defining and registering criminal and judicial data on the European level. Based upon work done by the European Sourcebook experts group in creating the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics (ESB), the project intended to improve and complement the standards developed so far for definitions and statistical registration in four fields, in order to contribute to the picture of criminal justice in Europe. It utilized questionnaires filled by an established European network.

Gottingen, GER: Universitätsverlag Göttingen 2010 302p.

By Sytske Besemer.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree', 'Like father like son', 'Chip off the old block'. All these idioms seem to suggest that offspring resemble their parents and this also applies to criminal behaviour. This dissertation investigates mechanisms that might explain why children with criminal parents have a higher risk of committing crime. Several explanations for this intergenerational transmission have been contrasted, such as social learning (imitation of behaviour), official bias against certain families, and transmission of risk factors. Sytske Besemer investigated this in England as well as in the Netherlands. She answers questions such as: does it matter when the parents committed crime in the child's life? Do more persistent offenders transmit crime more than sporadic offenders? Do violent offenders specifically transmit violent behaviour or general crime to their children? Might the police and courts be biased against certain families? Could a deprived environment explain why parents as well as children show criminal behaviour? Does parental imprisonment pose an extra risk? This dissertation is the first study to specifically investigate these mechanisms of intergenerational continuity. The study is scientifically relevant because of its breadth, integration of conviction data as well as data on self-reported offending and environmental risk factors, its comparative design and the long periods over which transmission is investigated. Furthermore, the dissertation has important policy implications. It demonstrates how penal policy designed to reduce criminal behaviour might actually increase this behaviour in the next generation. This is especially important since Western countries such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands show an increasing trend towards more punitive policies.

Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2012. 198p.

By Janne Kivivuori • Mona Rautelin Jeppe Büchert Netterstrøm • Dag Lindström Guðbjörg S. Bergsdóttir • Jónas O. Jónasson Martti Lehti • Sven Granath Mikkel M. Okholm • Petri Karonen.

Lethal Violence in the Early Modern Era and Present Times. Nordic Homicide in Deep Time draws a unique and detailed picture of developments in human interpersonal violence and presents new findings on rates, patterns, and long-term changes in lethal violence in the Nordics. Conducted by an interdisciplinary team of criminologists and historians, the book analyses homicide and lethal violence in northern Europe in two eras – the 17th century and early 21st century. Similar and continuous societal structures, cultural patterns, and legal cultures allow for long-term and comparative homicide research in the Nordic context. Reflecting human universals and stable motives, such as revenge, jealousy, honour, and material conflicts, homicide as a form of human behaviour enables long-duration comparison. By describing the rates and patterns of homicide during these two eras, the authors unveil continuity and change in human violence. Helsinki:

Helsinki University Press, 2022. 378p.

Edited by Graeme R. Newman

This groundbreaking work reviews the global situation of crime and justice around the world. Volume 1 includes: 1. Data sources;. 2. Experience of crime and justice. 3. Bringing to Justice. 4. Punishment. 5. Resources in criminal justice. 6. Firearm abuse and regulation. 7. Drugs and drug control.

United Nations and Oxford. 1999.

By Steven Pierce.

State Formation & Political Culture in Nigeria. “The messages are familiar to almost anyone with an e-mail account. During the early 2000s they became an international punch line. Often purporting to come from the relative of a Nigerian government official, they requested the recipient’s help to transfer vast sums of money out of the country. In return for this assistance, the recipient would receive a significant percentage of the funds being transferred. Usually unsaid was that the money had been acquired corruptly and that the sender needed help in avoiding the attention of law enforcement.”

Duke University Press (2016) 305p.

Edited by: Shalva Weil Consuelo Corradi Marceline Naudi.

Theory, research and prevention. “Femicide is the intentional killing of women and girls because of their gender. Femicides are usually perpetrated by intimate partners (for example, husbands or boyfriends) or family members (for example, fathers, brothers or cousins), who are usually familiar males; on rare occasions the perpetrators can be women, either lesbian partners or kin. A global study of homicides carried out by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in 2012 showed that 79% of all homicide victims were male. The global average male homicide rate was, at 9.7 per 100,000, almost four times the global average female rate.”

Policy Press (2018) 201p.

By Sylvia Walby, Jude Towers, Susie Balderston, Consuelo Corradi, Brian Francis, Markku Heiskanen, Karin Helweg-Larsen, Lut Mergaert, Philippa Olive, Emma Palmer, Heidi Stöckl and Sofia Strid.

“Lethal violence is enormous. There are nearly half a million (437,000) intentional homicides globally each year. Lethal violence is gendered. Globally, 95% of perpetrators of intentional homicide are male. Every year, intimate partners or family members perpetrate nearly 64,000 intentional homicides; two thirds of victims are female. Half the intentional homicides of women are perpetrated by an intimate partner or other family members, compared to 6% of intentional homicides of men.“

Policy Press (2017) 193 pages.

By Petter Gottschalk and Lars Gunnesdal.

Lack of Detection, Investigation and Conviction Compared to Social Security Fraud . Examines the magnitude, causes of, and reactions to white-collar crime, based on the theories and research of those who have uncovered various forms of white-collar crime. It argues that the offenders who are convicted represent only ‘the tip of the iceberg’ of a much greater problem: because white-collar crime is forced to compete with other kinds of financial crime like social security fraud for police resources and so receives less attention and fewer investigations. Gottschalk and Gunnesdal also offer insights into estimation techniques for the shadow economy, in an attempt to comprehend the size of the problem. Holding broad appeal for academics, practitioners in public administration, and government agencies, this innovative study serves as a timely starting point for examining the lack of investigation, detection, and conviction of powerful white-collar criminals.

Palgrave Macmillan. (2018 ) 151p.

Edited by Carissa Byrne Hessick.

The legal definition of child pornography is, at best, unclear. In part because of this ambiguity and in part because of the nature of the crime itself, the prosecution and sentencing of perpetrators, the protection of and restitution for victims, and the means for preventing repeat offenses are deeply controversial. In Refining Child Pornography Law, experts in law, sociology, and social work examine child pornography law and its consequences in an effort to clarify the questions and begin to formulate answers. Focusing on the roles of language and crime definition, the contributors discuss the increasing visibility child pornography plays in the national conversation about child safety, and present a range of views regarding the punishment of those who produce, distribute, and possess materials that may be considered child pornography.

Michigan University Press. 2016. 200p.

Edited by Barbara Harriss-White and Lucia Michelutti.

Criminal Political Economies in South Asia. The Wild East bridges political economy and anthropology to examine a variety of il/legal economic sectors and businesses such as red sanders, coal, fire, oil, sand, air spectrum, land, water, real estate, procurement and industrial labour. The 11 case studies, based across India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, explore how state regulative law is often ignored and/or selectively manipulated. The emerging collective narrative shows the workings of regulated criminal economic systems where criminal formations, politicians, police, judges and bureaucrats are deeply intertwined.

London. UCL Press. 2019.

By S.
 Giora
 Shoham and Mark
 Seis.

First published back in the 1980s, there's still nothing like this book anywhere. Provides a balanced, innovative account of the psychology of crime, drawing on current and past scientific research and philosophies. CONTENTS: 1. Perspectives, Defining Crime, and Theoretical Evaluation. 2. Psychoanalytic Theory. 3.Trait Perspectives. 4. Behavioral, Situational And Social Learning Perspectives. 5. Cognitive Learning Perspectives. 6. Existential and Phenomenological Perspectives. 7. References. RECOMMENDED: Excellent text for upper division undergraduate classes, or beginning graduate classes. Strongly recommended as a substitute for those expensive, superficial introductory textbooks! As we noted above, there is NO text that covers as carefully as this one does, the psychology of crime literature. It's as relevant today as it was a couple of decades ago.

NY. Harrow and Heston Publishers. 2012.