The book deals with the full range of subjects typically covered in a criminology course, including how society attempts to control crime and criminal behavior. It includes 41 essays and accompanying discussion questions presented in six major sections, with selected subcategories: (1) Defining Crime (characteristics of the criminal law, definition of criminal or delinquent behavior, the juvenile justice and victims’ rights movements); (2) Extent and Nature of Crime (reliability of official data and statistics, racial politics and racial disparities; (3) Correlates of Crime (relationships between crime and social class, race, gender, age and family relationships); (4) Theories of Crime (biological, psychological, sociological and other perspectives); (5) Types of Crime (crime cycles, motivation, organized crime, white-collar crime); and (6) Responses to Crime (police, prosecution, prisons, decriminalization). References, notes, tables, figures, index