Against the Rules IV: An Introduction to Criminology

Criminology originated in statistics and medical science in the nineteenth century, and criminologists initially described crime as a kind of disease. With the increasing influence of sociology, in the twentieth century the causes were sought in an ever wider circle around the offender. When the ultimate explanation of crime was not found there either, the designation and approach of criminals by the social environment and by criminal justice authorities were included in the analysis. In the sixties, in addition to the criminology of the offender (llawbreaker), a criminology of the legislator and law enforcement officer (the llawmaker) emerged. In the eighties, the victim also came into the picture. Research into the causes of crime became important again in the nineties, and attention also shifted to crime policy and the associated distribution of responsibility for crime prevention and control among citizens and other authorities. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, risk justice was introduced as a new concept and new policy.
Against the Rules IV. An Introduction to Criminology consists of three parts. Part I answers basic questions such as: What is criminology? How is crime defined and measured? Part II contains ten important and current theoretical approaches to explaining crime. Biological, psychological, social-psychological and sociological approaches are discussed in succession. These chapters discuss the more or less implicit views on criminal law, society and criminals and to what extent and in which areas these theoretical views find their empirical basis. Part III is devoted to the range of responses to crime that manifest themselves in modern societies, such as the changed ways of controlling crime through risk assessment and risk profiling, the growth of private security, the quest for reconciliation and restoration, structural and individual prevention, treatment and punishment.