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CRIMINOLOGY

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Posts tagged sociology
Thinking About Criminology

Edited by Simon Holdaway and Paul Rock

First published in 1998. Thinking about criminology draws together the expertise of respected criminologists from the principle contemporary schools of thought. The book aims to provide a clear analysis of the relationship between sociological theory and contemporary empirical criminological research, discussing the ways in which theoretical perspectives have contributed to the understanding of relevant criminal justice institutions, law and policy

London: Routledge, 1998. 220p.

Corporate and Governmental Deviance Problems of Organizational Behavior in Contemporary Society

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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

Desistance as an Intergenerational Process

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

History, Linked Lives, Timing, and Agency: New Directions in Developmental and Life-Course Perspective on Gangs

 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

Morality Made Visible: .Edward Westermarck’s Moral and Social Theory

By Otto Pipatti

While highly respected among evolutionary scholars, the sociologist, anthropologist and philosopher Edward Westermarck is now largely forgotten in the social sciences. This book is the first full study of his moral and social theory, focusing on the key elements of his theory of moral emotions as presented in The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas and summarised in Ethical Relativity. Examining Westermarck’s evolutionary approach to the human mind, the author introduces important new themes to scholarship on Westermarck, including the pivotal role of emotions in human reciprocity, the evolutionary origins of human society, social solidarity, the emergence and maintenance of moral norms and moral responsibility. With attention to Westermarck’s debt to David Hume and Adam Smith, whose views on human nature, moral sentiments and sympathy Westermarck combined with Darwinian evolutionary thinking, Morality Made Visible highlights the importance of the theory of sympathy that lies at the heart of Westermarck’s work, which proves to be crucial to his understanding of morality and human social life. A rigorous examination of Westermarck’s moral and social theory in its intellectual context, this volume connects Westermarck’s work on morality to classical sociology, to the history of evolutionism in the social and behavioural sciences, and to the sociological study of morality and emotions, showing him to be the forerunner of modern evolutionary psychology and anthropology. In revealing the lasting value of his work in understanding and explaining a wide range of moral phenomena, it will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology and psychology with interests in social theory, morality and intellectual history.

Oxon, Abingdon, UK: New York; Routledge, 2020. 150p.