Blackwell Reference Online

The Blackwell Companion to Criminology provides a contemporary and global resource to scholarship in both classical and topical areas of criminology. Authored by an international group of expert criminologists, these original essays focus on major issues in criminology today, commenting upon key debates and theories, outlining the implications of new topics, studies and ideas, and discussing contemporary developments.

The essays cover a wide range of topics and themes, including:

• The social construction of crime
• The relations between class, gender, race and crime
• The realities and limits of criminal justice
• Juvenile delinquency and its treatment
• The success of punishment and rehabilitation
• The official statistical patterns of criminalization and their relation to the state and its policies
• The increased importance of mass media and new information systems in defining, portraying and communicating crime
• International crimes and their relation with globalization and the global social order
• The possibility of social control after a century of violence.

Written accessibly for the student, and with its international perspective and first-rate scholarship, this is truly the first global handbook of criminology.