Designed as an alternative to overly comprehensive, lengthy, and expensive introductory texts, Essential Criminology is, as its title implies, a concise overview of the field. The book guides students through the various definitions of crime and the different ways crime is measured.

Table of Contents

• List of Tables and Figures
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• 1 What Is Criminology? The Study of Crime, Criminals, and Victims in a Global Context
• 2 What Is Crime? Defining the Problem
• 3 Classical, Neoclassical, and Rational-Choice Theories
• 4 “Born to Be Bad”: Biological, Physiological, and Biosocial Theories of Crime
• 5 Criminal Minds: Psychiatric and Psychological Explanations for Crime
• 6 Learning Criminal Behavior: Social Process Theories
• 7 Failed Socialization: Control Theory, Social Bonds, and Labeling
• 8 Crimes of Place: Social Ecology and Cultural Theories of Crime
• 9 The Sick Society: Anomie, Strain, and Subcultural Theory
• 10 Capitalism as a Criminogenic Society: Conflict and Radical Theories of Crime
• 11 Patriarchy, Gender and Crime: Feminist Criminological Theory
• 12 New Directions in Critical Criminological Theory
• 13 Conclusion: Toward a Unified Criminology
• References