What Is Crime?: Controversies over the Nature of Crime and What to Do about ItFor decades, scholars have disagreed about what kinds of behavior count as crime. Is it simply a violation of the criminal law? Is it behavior that causes serious harm? Is the seriousness affected by how many people are harmed and does it make a difference who those people are? Are crimes less criminal if the victims are black, lower class, or foreigners? When corporations victimize workers is that a crime? What about when governments violate basic human rights of their citizens, and who then polices governments? In What Is Crime? the first book-length treatment of the topic, contributors debate the content of crime from diverse perspectives: consensus/moral, cultural/relative, conflict/power, anarchist/critical, feminist, racial/ethnic, postmodernist, and integrational. Henry and Lanier synthesize these perspectives and explore what each means for crime control policy. |
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actors analysis approach argued Calif citizens claims makers committed concept conduct norms conflict consensus consensus crimes considered Constitutive Criminology context crime definition crime problems criminal acts criminal behavior criminal episodes criminal justice criminal justice system criminal law criteria critical culture defining crime definition of crime delinquency deviance dimensions drug enforcement example forms Gibbons groups Hispanic human rights identified individuals institutions interaction interests involved Lanier lawbreaking legal definition legalistic legitimate moral needs needs-based offenders organization patterns perceived persons perspective Pi Kappa Alpha police political potential pyramid racial rape relationships response robbery role sanctions scholars school violence Schwendinger Sellin sexual social constructionism social control social harm social injury social problems society sociologists Sociology specific structural violence Stuart Henry Sutherland Tappan theory tion types typology University Press victims violations Waltersville white-collar crime women York