The Study of Violent Crime

Violence is a complex subject that is rooted in a multitude of disciplines, including not only criminology but also psychology, sociology, biology, and other social science disciplines. It is only through understanding violence as a concept that we can hope to respond to it appropriately and to prevent it. The Study of Violent Crime: Its Correlates and Concerns is a comprehensive text that provides a current analysis of violence and violent crime in the United States.

Topics discussed include:

• The history of violence in Europe and America
• Whether violent behavior can be predicted
• Possible correlates of violence, including values, poverty, low education, abuse and neglect, alcohol abuse, and shame
• Sociological theories surrounding crime causation, including social control, conflict and strain, and anomie
• Psychological approaches to understanding violence from Freud, Bentham, Skinner, and others
• Biological theories and the influence of positivism and determinism
• The role of early exposure to violence on future behavior and programs to counteract these effects
• Gang activity and hate crimes
• The history of punishment and its effectiveness
• Victimology and victimization

Organized in logical fashion, each chapter builds on previous ones and makes use of concrete examples to clarify concepts. Action boxes help readers focus on salient points and review questions appear at the end of each chapter, enabling readers to test their assimilation of the material.

Cliff Roberson LLM, Ph.D is editor-in-chief of Professional Issues in Criminal Justice Journal and is academic chair for the Master of Science in Criminal Justice Program, Kaplan University. He is also an emeritus professor of criminal justice at Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas. In 2009, a research study conducted by a group of professors from Sam Houston State University determined that Roberson was the leading criminal justice author in the United States based on his publications and their relevance to the profession [See Southwest Journal of Criminal Justice, Vol. 6, issue 1, 2009]. He has authored or coauthored more than 50 books and texts on legal subjects.

Dr. Scott Mire has been an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette since August of 2005. Prior to this, Dr. Mire spent several years in law enforcement. He served as a police officer and narcotics agent with the Lafayette, Louisiana Police Department and then worked for the United States Border Patrol in Laredo, Texas. He worked for the Texas Police Corps as a training coordinator while pursuing a Ph.D. in criminal justice at Sam Houston State University. Dr. Mire has authored or coauthored several journal articles and book chapters including two text books in the areas of correctional counseling and ethics in criminal justice.