The ESRC Cambridge
Network
For the study
of the social contexts of pathways in crime
The Explanation of Crime
Context, Mechanisms and Development
Edited by
PER-OLOF H. WIKSTRÖM
University of Cambridge
ROBERT J. SAMPSON
Harvard University
Integration of disciplines, theories and research orientations has assumed a central role in criminological discourse yet it remains difficult to identify any concrete discoveries or significant breakthroughs for which integration has been responsible. Concentrating on three key concepts - context, mechanisms, and development - this volume aims to advance integrated scientific knowledge on crime causation by bringing together different scholarly approaches. Through an analysis of the roles of behavioural contexts and individual differences in crime causation, The Explanation of Crime seeks to provide a unified and focused approach to the integration of knowledge. Chapter topics range from individual genetics to family environments and from ecological behaviour settings to the macro-level context of communities and social systems. This is a comprehensive treatment of the problem of crime causation which will appeal to graduate students and researchers in criminology and be of great interest to policy-makers and practitioners in crime policy and prevention.
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>> Contents>>
- Introduction: Toward a unified approach to crime and its explanation
Per-Olof H. Wikström and Robert J. Sampson
- A systematic perspective on crime
Mario Bunge
-
How does community context matter? Social mechanisms and the explanation of crime rates
Robert J. Sampson
- Individuals, settings and acts of crime: Situational mechanisms and the explanation of crime
Per-Olof H. Wikström
- Evidence from behavioural genetics for environmental contributions to antisocial conduct
Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi
- A three-dimensional, cumulative developmental model of serious delinquency
Rolf Loeber, N. Wim Slot and Magda Stouthamer-Loeber
- Self-control and social control of deviant behaviour in context: Development and interactions along the life course
Marc LeBlanc
- Desistance, social bonds and human agency: A theoretical explanation
Anthony Bottoms
>> Reviews >>
Guido Mehlkop, Technische Universität, Dresden:
‘innovative, stimulating, and often provocative’
‘the chapters represent a wide range of original and powerful approaches on the individual as well as on the contextual level’
‘the road to integration is winding, full of rocks, roundabouts, and sometimes leading into a dead end. The seven essays in this volume edited by Per-Olof H. Wikström and Robert J. Sampson definitely deliver a highly needed road-map’
Mehlkop, G. (2008) Per-Olof Wikström and Robert J. Sampson (Ed.): The explanation of crime. Context, mechanisms and development. European Sociological Review, 24, 133-135.
Paul- Philippe Pare and Kenneth Preston, University of Western Ontario:
‘very interesting, intellectually stimulating, and even a little wild’
Paré, P. & Preston, K. (2007) Per-Olof H. Wikström and Robert J. Sampson, eds. The explanation of crime: Context, mechanisms and development. Canadian Journal of Sociology Online, September-October 2007.
Alex Piquero, Presidential Scholar; Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York:
‘In The Explanation of Crime, Wikström and Sampson have brought together the field’s best inter- and multi-disciplinary thinkers to consider how context, mechanisms and development integrate to shape crime over the life course.’
‘Very rarely today do books make the sort of intellectual contribution necessary to shape and re-shape the field’s thinking. By taking the time that is ultimately necessary to put forth big and new ideas, Wikström has done criminologists a large service by giving us the theoretical and empirical roadmap to follow for the next twenty-five years of research’
Piquero, A. (2008) A review of Per-Olof Wikström and David A. Butterworth, Adolescent crime: Individual differences and lifestyles, Cullompton, Willan, 2006, and Per-Olof Wikström and Robert J. Sampson, The explanation of crime: Context, mechanisms and development (pathways in crime). Cambridge University Press, 2006. King’s Law Journal, 19(1), 203-205.
Charles Tittle, Professor and Goodnight-GlaxoWellcome Chair, North Carolina State University:
‘the potential to become a standard reference and guide to scholars’
‘All of the scholars featured in this book are learned, careful, and insightful, and they are without doubt true intellectuals’
‘this book contains enough good work to justify a recommendation that criminologists pay close attention to it’
Tittle, C. (2007) The explanation of crime: Context, mechanisms and development, edited by Per-Olof H. Wikström and Robert J. Sampson. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 36, 5, 484-485.
Gilbert Geis, Professor Emeritus, Department of Criminology Law and Society, University of California, Irvine:
‘articulately and intelligently propounded’
‘the ecumenical national backgrounds of the contributors create an invigorating infusion of viewpoints often sadly lacking in the parochial world of American criminological scholarship’
Geis, G. (2008) The explanation of crime: contexts, mechanisms and development. Edited by Per-Olof Wikström and Robert J. Sampson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. American Journal of Scoiology, 113(4), 1208-1210.
Gilles Renaud, Judge, Ontario Court of Justice:
‘well-written and superbly edited (and elegant)’
‘guidance and instruction on the genesis of offending and certain methods of addressing recidivism and of promoting desistance that is of such signal value that to ignore it is to fail to discharge with professionalism our function as judges, prosecutors, defence counsel, probation offices and criminologists’
‘the cogent and coherent treatment of crime as envisaged from the troika of context, mechanisms and development that the editors and the contributors advance is too valuable to ignore’
Renaud, G. (2008) Book Reviews. Criminal Law Quarterly, 53(3), 398-404.
Peter Hedström, Professor and Official Fellow, Nuffield College, Oxford:
‘a terrific book. With its focus on different situational mechanisms linking social contexts to individual actions, it will appeal not only to criminologists but also to sociologists and other social scientists interested in explaining why individuals do what they do.’
Ross Homel, Foundation Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University, Australia:
‘The essays in this volume are amongst the most stimulating and original collections so far published, focusing explicitly on the theoretical foundations of developmental criminology. They take the analyses way beyond risk factors and a preoccupation with statistical sophistication to address the core questions of the processes through which human beings across the lifecourse shape and are shaped by their environments, and how individual factors and social contexts at multiple levels can be theorized simultaneously. In short, the authors provide a range of powerful new tools for thinking creatively about pathways into and out of crime.’
Hans-Jurgen Kerner, Director of the Institut für Kriminologie, Universität Tübingen:
‘a very timely book. It will definitely enhance scholarly debate in international criminology and significantly add to progress in empirical research on the complex dynamics of crime causation and control’
‘extremely successful in delineating a unified scholarly perspective of the dynamic interplay of behavioural contexts and individual differences in crime causation.’
John H. Laub, Department of Criminology, University of Maryland:
‘In the last 25 years, the idea of “integration” in criminology has been bandied about as the wave of the future of the field, but nowhere has this concept been embraced with such vigour or commitment’
‘In a field that has become increasingly timid and afraid of bold ideas, this volume is a welcome relief. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in cross-level knowledge of crime.’ |
