This handbook provides a comprehensive treatment of the field of criminology at the turn of the 21st century. It is designed to review the important recent developments in the sociology of crime and deviance, including: History of the Discipline: with an emphasis on the 17th, 18th, and 19th century, this section illustrates how historical theories in the discipline affect modern-day research and practice. Methodological Issues in Crime Research: including cutting-edge techniques, written by those who currently use them. This section covers qualitative and quantitative, longitudinal and cross-sectional methods. It also features mapping, trajectories, HLM, latent growth models, NIBRS. Explanations of Crime: including biological/genetic, psychological, social structure, and social process explanations. Theory-Based Practice: with a focus on prevention and cessation of crime, particularly early-childhood development, situational prevention, and disistence techniques. Special Topics: this section includes chapters on crime-related issues such as gangs, guns, peer pressure, drug use, child abuse/domestic violence, school crime, and hate crime, and criminal-justice related issues including capital punishment, restorative justice, community policing, and race and gender in criminal processing. With its interdisciplinary coverage of both historical research and cutting-edge method and theory, this volume will be essential for anyone doing research in Criminology, Criminal Justice, or Sociology. |