Crime: Readings

The Third Edition of Crime: Readings features the latest theoretical and empirical works on crime, maintaining an ideal balance between major theoretical explanations of crime and crime control and each respective theoretical treatment while tying in policy issues. Updated and revised, the readings in this edition have been carefully pruned by the editors for maximum impact, providing undergraduate students with an accessible introduction to major issues in the field while eliminating excessive technical, methodological details that might hamper comprehension. This anthology includes both traditional yet still vital theories used by scholars of crime and newer explanations for law-violating behavior. Covering a realm of diverse criminological literature, the editors include a variety of readings that reflect the range of perspectives about the causes of criminal behavior and how best such behavior should be addressed.

New to the Third Edition

• Links criminological theories with the latest empirical research: The book features even more discussion of the ties between theory and actual policy in the Part introductions and in several new articles.
• Highlights recent developments in the field: The editors address a number of new issues related to crime control and also place greater emphasis on critical criminology, psychological, and biological approaches.
• Recognizes the growing importance of comparative criminology: This edition includes a number of articles by criminologists from outside of North America, providing a more comprehensive and global perspective.
• Keeps readers up-to-date in the literature: The sections on the history of criminology, research methods, and correlates of crime incorporate recent publications, and the section on enduring and changing patterns now includes entries on gangs, sex offenders, cyber crime, and terrorism.
• Inspires students to think critically about the theory and research of crime: Revised discussion and essay questions maximize student reflection on the concepts covered and include web-based data to give students practical experience working with criminological research.

Companion Web Site
Homework assignments and data exercises have been moved to a companion Website/

Intended Audience

This is an excellent text for undergraduate courses such as Introduction to Criminology and Criminological Theory in the fields of criminal justice, sociology, law and society, and social work.

Robert D. Crutchfield is Professor and the Clarence and Elissa Schrag Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of Washington where he has been a winner of the university’s Distinguished Teaching Award. He served on the Washington State Juvenile Sentencing Commission and is also a former juvenile probation officer, adult parole officer, and a deputy editor of Criminology. He is a past Vice President of the American Society of Criminology and currently serves on the National Academies’ Committee on Law and Justice. His research focuses on labor markets and crime, and on racial and ethnic disparities in the administration of justice.

Charis E. Kubrin is Associate Professor of Sociology at George Washington University and Research Affiliate at the George Washington Institute of Public Policy. She is also a member of the National Consortium on Violence Research. Her research focuses on neighborhood correlates of crime, with an emphasis on race and violent crime. A new line of research examines the intersection of music, culture, and social identity, particularly as it applies to hip hop and minority youth in disadvantaged communities. Charis is co-editor of Crime and Society: Crime, 3^rd Edition (Sage Publications 2007) and co-author of Researching Theories of Crime and Deviance (Oxford University Press 2008) and Privileged Places: Race, Residence, and the Structure of Opportunity (Lynne Rienner 2006). Her work has been published in various academic journals including American Journal of Sociology, City and Community, Criminology, Criminology & Public Policy, Homicide Studies, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Justice Quarterly, Social Forces, Social Problems, Sociological Perspectives, Sociological Quarterly, and Urban Studies. In 2005, Charis received the American Society of Criminology’s Ruth Shonle Cavan Young Scholar Award and the Morris Rosenberg Award for Recent Achievement from the District of Columbia Sociological Society.

George S. Bridges is the President of Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. He has served as a staff member of the policy office of the Attorney General of the United States as well as deputy editor of Criminology. He has been a member of the Washington State Minority and Justice Commission. He has published many papers on racial biases in American law and is co-editor, with Martha Myers, of Crime, Inequality, and Social Control.

Joseph G. Weis is Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington. He served for a number of years as the Director of the National Center for the Assessment of Delinquent Behavior and Its Prevention, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as a member of the Washington State Governor’s Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee. He is a past editor of the journal Criminology and a co-author, with Michael J. Hindelang and Travis Hirschi, of Measuring Delinquency.