The four essays in the first section of the book reconsider the merits of the key text in the development of classical criminology, Cesare Beccaria's 1764 treatise, "Of Crimes and Punishments." The five essays in the second part deal with the rise of positivist discourses about crime, discourses that situate crime in relation to the body, the social, and the mind. The contributions in the final section of the book discuss issues related to the growth of criminology in the U.S. between 1880 and 1945, including feminism, methodological debates in criminology, and the input into criminology of sociological research.