The volume offers students of crime and justice an alternative to criminal justice texts. Each chapter questions basic assumptions about crime and criminal justice and traces the development of a crime problem from its creation to society's integration of a myth into popular thinking and eventually social policy. The first five chapters focus on the social construction of crime myths, crime waves and crime fears, the myth and fear of child abduction, the serial killer panic, and stalkers and murder. Subsequent chapters deal with the war on organized crime, white-collar criminality, the drug crisis, AIDS transmission, and misconceptions about criminal justice and police work. Final chapters examine the myth of equal justice by considering biases in arrest and trial, the utility of punishment, criminal justice system leniency, and capital punishment and crime control. References, tables, and photographs