Profiles in Crime: Typologies of Criminal Behavior

Profiles in Crime: Typologies of Criminal Behavior provides students with a comprehensive understanding of behavior patterns within the context of justice, law, and society. The text teaches students how to identify the perpetrator of a crime, the nature of the offense, the manner in which the crime was committed, and the motivation and aftermath of the crime. The book places special focus on the social, political, and economic context of criminal acts and how these factors can influence an offender’s behavior. 

The book begins with an overview of criminal offending, criminal typologies, and criminal investigation. In later chapters, students are introduced to various criminal profiles, including those for violent crime, property crime, white collar crime, organized crime, political crime, and more. In the final chapter, students learn the correlates of criminal offending, including psychological, biological, and psychiatric theories of crime, how individuals learn to be delinquent, and psychiatric and psychological explanations for crime. 

Profiles in Crime is well-suited for undergraduate courses in sociology, criminal justice, and criminology, especially those that address the sociology of deviance, criminal psychology, and criminal typology.

Aida Y. Hass-Wisecup earned her B.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in sociology and criminal justice from George Washington University. She is an assistant professor of criminal justice at Missouri State University, where she teaches courses in criminological theory, criminal typologies, and correctional theory and practice. Her research focuses on the social organization of the modern penal institution, with focus on the impact of the changing dynamics of sentencing and corrections on the structural operation and interaction between inmates, correctional officers, and prison functions.