The book humanizes bank robbers by considering social and economic conditions of such offenders, the dynamics of criminal partnerships, and problems many criminals experience and bring on themselves. The passion in the stories of criminals is balanced with thematic and theoretical overviews of specific issues related to thought processes and rationalizations. Theory and research are applied to case studies to illustrate the complex factors and processes that influence criminal behavior and lifestyle. Each book chapter begins with a theoretical overview, followed by summaries of relevant interview materials that illustrate particular theories and present the life histories of serious offenders. Book chapters specifically focus on need and greed as motivators to commit bank robberies; the manner in which criminal skills, values, and techniques of neutralization are learned from other criminals in prison and on the streets; the influence of the mass media; social control theory and the life situations of people who engage in crime; the relationship between addiction, drug abuse, and criminal conduct; the sudden involvement of previously law-abiding citizens in serious criminal activity; case histories of men who are clearly committed to crime as a way of life and who exhibit superior skills and planning; informants; encounters with the police; and sentencing and the courts. 83 references