Seduction Of Crime - Hardcover

Katz, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465076157 ISBN 13: 9780465076154

Publisher: Basic Books, 1988

Synopsis

Probes the motivation of criminals--from juvenile delinquents to cold-blooded murderers--to commit their crimes and poses a unique moral reasoning informing the acts of such individuals

About this title

About the Author:

Jack Katz is professor of sociology at UCLA.

From Publishers Weekly:

What makes the commission of crimes seductively appealing to some criminals? How does it feel to rob, vandalize or murder? According to UCLA sociology professor Katz, these questions have been all but banished from serious discussion by modern sociology. Full of psychobabble, this heavily footnoted tract will provoke sharply divided reactions. In Katz's view, teenagers who shoplift get sneaky thrills enacting a drama of personal competence; stickup artists gain a private sense of moral superiority over their victims; cold-blooded murderers are obsessed with questions of primordial evil; while those who kill out of situational rage may be self-righteously defending "the Good" as they understand it. Katz want us to see that crime has hidden ties with primitive magic in offenders' misguided attempts at mastery and control. Many readers will see red instead, irked at what often sounds like an attempt to let criminals off the hook. Others will welcome a frightening probe into the criminal mentality.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0465076157
• ISBN 13: 9780465076154
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384