Introductory Criminology:
Marcus Felson, Mary A. Eckert
Introductory Criminology: The Study of Risky Situations Marcus Felson, Mary A. Eckert - New York: Routledge, 2017. - 450 Pages, ;
Introductory Criminology: The Study of Risky Situations takes a unique and intuitive approach to teaching and learning criminology. Avoiding the fragmentation of ideas commonly found in criminology textbooks, Marcus Felson and Mary A. Eckert develop a more practical, readable structure that engages the reader and enhances their understanding of the material. Their descriptive categories, simultaneously broad and realistic, serve better than the usual philosophical categories, such as "positivism" and "classicalism," to stimulate students’ interest and critical thinking. Short chapters, each broken into 5–7 sections, describe situations in which crime is most likely to happen, and explain why they are risky and what society can and can’t do about crime. They create a framework to organize ideas and facts, and then link these categories to the leading theories developed by criminologists over the last 100 years. With this narrative to guide them, students remember the material beyond the final exam.
This fresh new text was created by two professors to address the main points they encounter in teaching their own criminology courses. Problems solved include: reluctant readers, aversion to abstract thinking, fear of theory, and boredom with laundry lists of disconnected ideas. Felson, a leader in criminology theory with a global reputation for innovative thinking, and Eckert, an experienced criminal justice researcher, are uniquely qualified to reframe criminology in a unified arc. By design, they offer abstractions that are useful and not overbearing; their prose is readable, and their concepts are easy to comprehend and remember. This new textbook challenges instructors to re-engage with theory and present the essence of criminological thought for adult learners, coaching students to grasp the concept before any label is attached and allowing them to emerge with deeper understanding of what each theory means and offers. Lean, with no filler or fluff like stock photos, Introductory Criminology includes the authors’ graphics to crystallize and expand concepts from the text.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTORY CRIMINOLOGY
The Study of Risky Situations
DETAILED CONTENTS
Dedication
Table of Contents
Detailed Contents
List of Figures, Tables, and Boxes
Our Teaching Framework
Acknowledgments
Getting Started
Criminality, crime and criminology
Why we have theory
Zeroing in on risky situations
Mixing the good and the bad
"Deviance" and risky situations
Risky public places
Moving forward
Key Terms and Names
Endnotes
Part 1. The Crime Challenge
Questions Addressed in Part 1
Endnotes
Unit 1.1 The Need to Control Disputes
Dispute escalation
Strangers, streets and disputes
Rudeness and crime on the job
Rudeness and neighborhood crime
Key Terms and Names in Unit 1.1
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 1.2 Containing Sexual Temptations
Sexual taboos
Conflict between rules and realities
Sexual license and tolerance
Sexual harassment
Key Terms and Names in Unit 1.2
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 1.3 Protecting Property
Informal processes to resolve property issues
Contracts and conflicts
Registrations and licenses assign criminal responsibility
Insurance takes some pressure off of the police
The shadow of the law
Key Terms and Names in Unit 1.3
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 1.4 Safeguarding Children
Mistreatment by other youths
Abuse by adults
Youths mistreating the rest of society
Adolescent substance abuse
Truancy
Other status offenses
The 80-20 rule
Key Terms and Names in Unit 1.4
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Perspective on Part 1
Main Points of Part 1
Endnotes
Part 2. Four Types of Crime Control
Key Terms and Names in Introducing Part 2
Questions Addressed in Part 2
Endnotes
Unit 2.1 Personal Controls
Before Birth
Genetic factors
Psychopaths
Early Childhood
Moral teachings
Resisting temptations
The marshmallow experiment
A general theory of self-control
Pleasure now, harm later
Self-control is work
Variability in self-control
Key Terms and Names in Unit 2.1
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 2.2 Social Controls
Temptations vs. bonding
Teenagers in Japan vs. the Unites States
American parents also try to guide teenage situations
Routine activities
The crime triangle
Key Terms and Names in Unit 2.2
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 2.3 Situational Controls
Some interesting examples
Drinking on campus
The situational crime prevention strategy
The displacement hypothesis
Key Terms and Names in Unit 2.3
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 2.4 Formal Controls
Multiple steps
System complexities in the United States
Summarizing principles of formal criminal justice
What the public expects
De minimis
Procedural justice
Key terms and Names in Unit 2.4
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Perspective on Part 2
Mains Points of Part 2
Part 3. Realistic Justice
Key Terms and Names in Introducing Part 3
Questions Addressed in Part 3
Endnotes
Unit 3.1 Assigning Responsibility
Sorting out accidental harm
A criminal state of mind
Juvenile justice tries another approach
Key Terms and Names in Unit 3.1
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 3.2 Realistic Policing
Authority and control
Police use of force
Ordinary police work
The decision to arrest
Reactions to police-citizen encounters
Procedural justice and the police
Service vs. crime reduction
Directed patrol and hot-spot policing
Do police reduce crime, or merely displace it?
Problem-oriented policing
Efforts to avoid arresting people
Key Terms and Names in Unit 3.2
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 3.3 Realistic Court Activity
Delay in court
Plea bargaining
Helpful organizations
Marrying organization with the justice system
Wrongful convictions
Key Terms and Names in Unit 3.3
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 3.4 Realistic Sanctions
Theory of punishment
Reality of punishment
Targeted deterrence
The overly-rational offender
Moral panics and the swinging pendulum
Key Terms and Names in Unit 3.4
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 3.5 Efforts and Realities
Jails and prisons in America
Staying in the community
Something short of prison
Too much of a good thing?
Evaluating program effectiveness
Reasonable expectations
Different focus in the community
Key Terms and Names Unit 3.5
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 3.6 Practical Crime Data
Police and justice system data
Victim surveys
Self-report surveys
Medical data
Business data
Future crime data: cybercrime, fraud and credit-card abuse
Key Terms and Names Unit 3.6
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Perspective on Part 3
Key Terms and Names in Perspective
Main Points of Part 3
Endnotes
Part 4. Risky Ages
Introducing the age-crime curve
Key Terms and Names in Introducing Part 4
Questions Addressed in Part 4
Endnotes
Unit 4.1 The Teenage Brain
Uneven brain development
Sociability, coolness and sex
Known risks vs. unknown risks
Key Terms and Names in Unit 4.1
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 4.2 Teenage Volatility
Four convenient categories
The zigzags of adolescence
The smooth age-crime curve is just a summary
Key Terms and Names in Unit 4.2
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 4.3 Peer Influences
Cumulative peer effects
Research disappointments
Context-specific socialization and behavior
Key Terms and Names in Unit 4.3
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 4.4 Situational Inducements
Situational inducement theory
Techniques of neutralization
Aggressive peer pressure
Overcoming moral inhibitions
Diversity of substance abuse behaviors
Linking social learning to situational inducements
Key Terms and Names in Unit 4.4
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 4.5 Time with Peers
Teenage time-use changes from the early 1900s to the 1980s
Further teenage evasion of parental controls
Calculating time at risk
Delinquency and "hanging out"
School effects on the timing of delinquency
From "ordinary" delinquency to something worse
Key Terms and Names in Unit 4.5
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Perspective on Part 4
Main Points of Part 4
Part 5. Overt Crime Areas
Key Terms and Names in Introducing Part 5
Questions Addressed in Part 5
Unit 5.1 Tough Neighborhoods
Disorganized places
Open-air drug markets
Outdoor drug sales produce more violence
Outdoor drug sales produce more arrests
Fear and public disorder
The effect of abandoned buildings
Chronic street nuisances
Key Terms and Names in Unit 5.1
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 5.2 Cohesion Vs. Intimidation
Trying to strengthen neighborhoods
Intimidation
Selective trust
Inability to watch the street
Urban villages
Key Terms and Names in Unit 5.2
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 5.3 Exclusion
Exclusion and the housing market
Exclusionary zoning
Gates and roadblocks
Excluding transients and homeless people
Nimbyism
Ethnic heterogeneity impairing neighborhood action
Key Terms and Names in Unit 5.3
Discussion Questions
Bibliography for Box 5a
Endnotes
Unit 5.4 Concentration
The Danish experiment
The Yonkers experiment
Public housing de-concentration
A negative experiment
Transience and crime
Concentrated disadvantage in perspective
The elevated age-violence curve
A few violent youths can ruin a neighborhood
Key Terms and Names in Unit 5.4
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 5.5 Accommodation
Accommodating a tough neighborhood
Coping with crime (avoid)
The coded of the street (avert)
Sidling up to dangerous youths (adapt)
Helping offenders do crimes (assist)
Accommodating larger society
Aversive interpersonal experiences
Key Terms and Names in Unit 5.5
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 5.6 The Pathway to Decay
The importance of disorder
The neighborhood ability to heal
Simple illustrations of infectious disorder
Disorder contributes to serious crime
Forces behind disorder and decline
Deterioration
The withdrawal process
Policing disorder
Key Terms and Names in Unit 5.6
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 5.7 Mapping Crime
Crime maps from the Great Depression
Crime maps from mainframe computers
Maps get closer and closer to crime
A whole new image of "high crime zones"
Key Terms and Names in Unit 5.7
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Perspective on Part 5
Main Points of Part 5
Key Terms and Names in Perspective to Part 5
Part 6. Risky Settings for Women
A female view of crime
Negative experiences for women
Practical policy analysis
The social-psychological viewpoint
Looking beyond the justice system
Key Terms in Introducing Part 6
Questions Addressed in Part 6
Endnotes
Unit 6.1 The Policy Challenge
The structure of fear
The shadow of rape
Too close for comfort
Five feminist policy options
Feminist media advocacy
Educating potential offenders
Protecting women by enhancing enforcement
Women’s risks are quite concentrated
Safer design for women
Women pioneers in safe design
Key Terms and Names in Unit 6.1
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 6.2 Risky Streets
The scope of street harassment
Exposure to street harassment
Population density and proximity
Women and the safe cities movement
Safer designs for women
Making walking routes safer for women
Making public transit safer for women
Forcible rape and environmental design
Key Terms and Names in Unit 6.2
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 6.3 Risky Homes
Security isn’t obvious
Busier and calmer streets
Neighboring houses
How open is good?
Street drinking
Key Terms and Names in Unit 6.3
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 6.4 Risky Nights
Feminism and the temperance movement
Female drinking patterns today
Mapping sexual danger at night
The journey home at night
Concentration of bar-related aggression
How bars can make things worse for women
Enforcement of existing liquor laws can make it better
The "last drink survey"
Potentially aggressive pedestrian flows
Switzerland’s grand experiment
Alcohol prices and taxes can make it better
Variety of alcohol restrictions
Key Terms and Names in Unit 6.4
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Perspective on Part 6
Main Points of Part 6
Endnotes
Part 7. Crime Enhancers
Questions Addressed in Part 7
Unit 7.1 Crime in groups
Co-offending and criminal assistance
The co-offending age curve
Expansive criminal co-operation
Juvenile street gangs, rightly understood
The progression towards organized crime
Hierarchically-organized crime
Key Terms and Names in Unit 7.1
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 7.2 Crime via cyberspace
The blurred boundaries between people, data and things
The transformation of pornography
Cyberstalking
Cyberbullying
Cyberattacks on business
The reach of cybercrime
The transformation of white-collar crime
Key Terms and Names in Unit 7.2
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Perspective on Part 7
Main Points in Part 7
Wrap
ping Up
Index
9781138668249
Criminology. Criminal justice, Administration of.
364
Introductory Criminology: The Study of Risky Situations Marcus Felson, Mary A. Eckert - New York: Routledge, 2017. - 450 Pages, ;
Introductory Criminology: The Study of Risky Situations takes a unique and intuitive approach to teaching and learning criminology. Avoiding the fragmentation of ideas commonly found in criminology textbooks, Marcus Felson and Mary A. Eckert develop a more practical, readable structure that engages the reader and enhances their understanding of the material. Their descriptive categories, simultaneously broad and realistic, serve better than the usual philosophical categories, such as "positivism" and "classicalism," to stimulate students’ interest and critical thinking. Short chapters, each broken into 5–7 sections, describe situations in which crime is most likely to happen, and explain why they are risky and what society can and can’t do about crime. They create a framework to organize ideas and facts, and then link these categories to the leading theories developed by criminologists over the last 100 years. With this narrative to guide them, students remember the material beyond the final exam.
This fresh new text was created by two professors to address the main points they encounter in teaching their own criminology courses. Problems solved include: reluctant readers, aversion to abstract thinking, fear of theory, and boredom with laundry lists of disconnected ideas. Felson, a leader in criminology theory with a global reputation for innovative thinking, and Eckert, an experienced criminal justice researcher, are uniquely qualified to reframe criminology in a unified arc. By design, they offer abstractions that are useful and not overbearing; their prose is readable, and their concepts are easy to comprehend and remember. This new textbook challenges instructors to re-engage with theory and present the essence of criminological thought for adult learners, coaching students to grasp the concept before any label is attached and allowing them to emerge with deeper understanding of what each theory means and offers. Lean, with no filler or fluff like stock photos, Introductory Criminology includes the authors’ graphics to crystallize and expand concepts from the text.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTORY CRIMINOLOGY
The Study of Risky Situations
DETAILED CONTENTS
Dedication
Table of Contents
Detailed Contents
List of Figures, Tables, and Boxes
Our Teaching Framework
Acknowledgments
Getting Started
Criminality, crime and criminology
Why we have theory
Zeroing in on risky situations
Mixing the good and the bad
"Deviance" and risky situations
Risky public places
Moving forward
Key Terms and Names
Endnotes
Part 1. The Crime Challenge
Questions Addressed in Part 1
Endnotes
Unit 1.1 The Need to Control Disputes
Dispute escalation
Strangers, streets and disputes
Rudeness and crime on the job
Rudeness and neighborhood crime
Key Terms and Names in Unit 1.1
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 1.2 Containing Sexual Temptations
Sexual taboos
Conflict between rules and realities
Sexual license and tolerance
Sexual harassment
Key Terms and Names in Unit 1.2
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 1.3 Protecting Property
Informal processes to resolve property issues
Contracts and conflicts
Registrations and licenses assign criminal responsibility
Insurance takes some pressure off of the police
The shadow of the law
Key Terms and Names in Unit 1.3
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 1.4 Safeguarding Children
Mistreatment by other youths
Abuse by adults
Youths mistreating the rest of society
Adolescent substance abuse
Truancy
Other status offenses
The 80-20 rule
Key Terms and Names in Unit 1.4
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Perspective on Part 1
Main Points of Part 1
Endnotes
Part 2. Four Types of Crime Control
Key Terms and Names in Introducing Part 2
Questions Addressed in Part 2
Endnotes
Unit 2.1 Personal Controls
Before Birth
Genetic factors
Psychopaths
Early Childhood
Moral teachings
Resisting temptations
The marshmallow experiment
A general theory of self-control
Pleasure now, harm later
Self-control is work
Variability in self-control
Key Terms and Names in Unit 2.1
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 2.2 Social Controls
Temptations vs. bonding
Teenagers in Japan vs. the Unites States
American parents also try to guide teenage situations
Routine activities
The crime triangle
Key Terms and Names in Unit 2.2
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 2.3 Situational Controls
Some interesting examples
Drinking on campus
The situational crime prevention strategy
The displacement hypothesis
Key Terms and Names in Unit 2.3
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 2.4 Formal Controls
Multiple steps
System complexities in the United States
Summarizing principles of formal criminal justice
What the public expects
De minimis
Procedural justice
Key terms and Names in Unit 2.4
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Perspective on Part 2
Mains Points of Part 2
Part 3. Realistic Justice
Key Terms and Names in Introducing Part 3
Questions Addressed in Part 3
Endnotes
Unit 3.1 Assigning Responsibility
Sorting out accidental harm
A criminal state of mind
Juvenile justice tries another approach
Key Terms and Names in Unit 3.1
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 3.2 Realistic Policing
Authority and control
Police use of force
Ordinary police work
The decision to arrest
Reactions to police-citizen encounters
Procedural justice and the police
Service vs. crime reduction
Directed patrol and hot-spot policing
Do police reduce crime, or merely displace it?
Problem-oriented policing
Efforts to avoid arresting people
Key Terms and Names in Unit 3.2
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 3.3 Realistic Court Activity
Delay in court
Plea bargaining
Helpful organizations
Marrying organization with the justice system
Wrongful convictions
Key Terms and Names in Unit 3.3
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 3.4 Realistic Sanctions
Theory of punishment
Reality of punishment
Targeted deterrence
The overly-rational offender
Moral panics and the swinging pendulum
Key Terms and Names in Unit 3.4
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 3.5 Efforts and Realities
Jails and prisons in America
Staying in the community
Something short of prison
Too much of a good thing?
Evaluating program effectiveness
Reasonable expectations
Different focus in the community
Key Terms and Names Unit 3.5
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 3.6 Practical Crime Data
Police and justice system data
Victim surveys
Self-report surveys
Medical data
Business data
Future crime data: cybercrime, fraud and credit-card abuse
Key Terms and Names Unit 3.6
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Perspective on Part 3
Key Terms and Names in Perspective
Main Points of Part 3
Endnotes
Part 4. Risky Ages
Introducing the age-crime curve
Key Terms and Names in Introducing Part 4
Questions Addressed in Part 4
Endnotes
Unit 4.1 The Teenage Brain
Uneven brain development
Sociability, coolness and sex
Known risks vs. unknown risks
Key Terms and Names in Unit 4.1
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 4.2 Teenage Volatility
Four convenient categories
The zigzags of adolescence
The smooth age-crime curve is just a summary
Key Terms and Names in Unit 4.2
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 4.3 Peer Influences
Cumulative peer effects
Research disappointments
Context-specific socialization and behavior
Key Terms and Names in Unit 4.3
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 4.4 Situational Inducements
Situational inducement theory
Techniques of neutralization
Aggressive peer pressure
Overcoming moral inhibitions
Diversity of substance abuse behaviors
Linking social learning to situational inducements
Key Terms and Names in Unit 4.4
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 4.5 Time with Peers
Teenage time-use changes from the early 1900s to the 1980s
Further teenage evasion of parental controls
Calculating time at risk
Delinquency and "hanging out"
School effects on the timing of delinquency
From "ordinary" delinquency to something worse
Key Terms and Names in Unit 4.5
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Perspective on Part 4
Main Points of Part 4
Part 5. Overt Crime Areas
Key Terms and Names in Introducing Part 5
Questions Addressed in Part 5
Unit 5.1 Tough Neighborhoods
Disorganized places
Open-air drug markets
Outdoor drug sales produce more violence
Outdoor drug sales produce more arrests
Fear and public disorder
The effect of abandoned buildings
Chronic street nuisances
Key Terms and Names in Unit 5.1
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 5.2 Cohesion Vs. Intimidation
Trying to strengthen neighborhoods
Intimidation
Selective trust
Inability to watch the street
Urban villages
Key Terms and Names in Unit 5.2
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 5.3 Exclusion
Exclusion and the housing market
Exclusionary zoning
Gates and roadblocks
Excluding transients and homeless people
Nimbyism
Ethnic heterogeneity impairing neighborhood action
Key Terms and Names in Unit 5.3
Discussion Questions
Bibliography for Box 5a
Endnotes
Unit 5.4 Concentration
The Danish experiment
The Yonkers experiment
Public housing de-concentration
A negative experiment
Transience and crime
Concentrated disadvantage in perspective
The elevated age-violence curve
A few violent youths can ruin a neighborhood
Key Terms and Names in Unit 5.4
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 5.5 Accommodation
Accommodating a tough neighborhood
Coping with crime (avoid)
The coded of the street (avert)
Sidling up to dangerous youths (adapt)
Helping offenders do crimes (assist)
Accommodating larger society
Aversive interpersonal experiences
Key Terms and Names in Unit 5.5
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 5.6 The Pathway to Decay
The importance of disorder
The neighborhood ability to heal
Simple illustrations of infectious disorder
Disorder contributes to serious crime
Forces behind disorder and decline
Deterioration
The withdrawal process
Policing disorder
Key Terms and Names in Unit 5.6
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 5.7 Mapping Crime
Crime maps from the Great Depression
Crime maps from mainframe computers
Maps get closer and closer to crime
A whole new image of "high crime zones"
Key Terms and Names in Unit 5.7
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Perspective on Part 5
Main Points of Part 5
Key Terms and Names in Perspective to Part 5
Part 6. Risky Settings for Women
A female view of crime
Negative experiences for women
Practical policy analysis
The social-psychological viewpoint
Looking beyond the justice system
Key Terms in Introducing Part 6
Questions Addressed in Part 6
Endnotes
Unit 6.1 The Policy Challenge
The structure of fear
The shadow of rape
Too close for comfort
Five feminist policy options
Feminist media advocacy
Educating potential offenders
Protecting women by enhancing enforcement
Women’s risks are quite concentrated
Safer design for women
Women pioneers in safe design
Key Terms and Names in Unit 6.1
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 6.2 Risky Streets
The scope of street harassment
Exposure to street harassment
Population density and proximity
Women and the safe cities movement
Safer designs for women
Making walking routes safer for women
Making public transit safer for women
Forcible rape and environmental design
Key Terms and Names in Unit 6.2
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 6.3 Risky Homes
Security isn’t obvious
Busier and calmer streets
Neighboring houses
How open is good?
Street drinking
Key Terms and Names in Unit 6.3
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 6.4 Risky Nights
Feminism and the temperance movement
Female drinking patterns today
Mapping sexual danger at night
The journey home at night
Concentration of bar-related aggression
How bars can make things worse for women
Enforcement of existing liquor laws can make it better
The "last drink survey"
Potentially aggressive pedestrian flows
Switzerland’s grand experiment
Alcohol prices and taxes can make it better
Variety of alcohol restrictions
Key Terms and Names in Unit 6.4
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Perspective on Part 6
Main Points of Part 6
Endnotes
Part 7. Crime Enhancers
Questions Addressed in Part 7
Unit 7.1 Crime in groups
Co-offending and criminal assistance
The co-offending age curve
Expansive criminal co-operation
Juvenile street gangs, rightly understood
The progression towards organized crime
Hierarchically-organized crime
Key Terms and Names in Unit 7.1
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Unit 7.2 Crime via cyberspace
The blurred boundaries between people, data and things
The transformation of pornography
Cyberstalking
Cyberbullying
Cyberattacks on business
The reach of cybercrime
The transformation of white-collar crime
Key Terms and Names in Unit 7.2
Discussion Questions
Endnotes
Perspective on Part 7
Main Points in Part 7
Wrap
ping Up
Index
9781138668249
Criminology. Criminal justice, Administration of.
364
