The first section includes two chapters that review the content and sources of public notions of contemporary crime and punishment and examine the role of major interest groups in determining who and what are labeled as criminal and in shaping perceptions of crime as a social problem. The next four chapters explore various dimensions of criminal activity, including crime statistics; the relationships among crime and gender, age, race and class; and crime victims. The next section examines five types of crime, including violent crime, property crime, vice crime, organized crime, and white-collar crime. Further chapters focus on crime causes theory, including potential biological influences, strain and subcultural theories, and control and deterrence theories. The section on the criminal justice system examines the essential elements of policing, the prosecution and sentencing elements of the court system, and corrections in prisons and the community. The final chapters examine five contemporary and controversial crime control issues, including drugs and crime, gangs and crime, gun control, the incapacitation of career criminals, and capital punishment. Figures, tables, name and subject indexes