Criminology and Criminal Justice: Criminal Justice Theories

We live in an era defined by corporate greed and malfeasance—one in which unprecedented accounting frauds and failures of compliance run rampant. In order to calm investor fears, revive perceptions of legitimacy in markets, and demonstrate the resolve of state and federal regulators, a host of reforms, high-profile investigations, and symbolic prosecutions have been conducted in response. But are they enough? In this timely work, William S. Laufer argues that even with recent legal reforms, corporate criminal law continues to be ineffective. As evidence, Laufer considers the failure of courts and legislatures to fashion liability rules that fairly attribute blame for organizations. He analyzes the games that corporations play to deflect criminal responsibility. And he also demonstrates how the exchange of cooperation for prosecutorial leniency and amnesty belies true law enforcement. But none of these factors, according to Laufer, trumps the fact that there is no single constituency or interest group that strongly and consistently advocates the importance and priority of corporate criminal liability. In the absence of a new standard of corporate liability, the power of regulators to keep corporate abuses in check will remain insufficient. A necessary corrective to our current climate of graft and greed, Corporate Bodies and Guilty Minds will be essential to policymakers and legal minds alike.  

We live in an era defined by corporate greed and malfeasance—one in which unprecedented accounting frauds and failures of compliance run rampant. In order to calm investor fears, revive perceptions of legitimacy in markets, and demonstrate the resolve of state and federal regulators, a host of reforms, high-profile investigations, and symbolic prosecutions have been conducted in response. But are they enough? In this timely work, William S. Laufer argues that even with recent legal reforms, corporate criminal law continues to be ineffective. As evidence, Laufer considers the failure of courts and legislatures to fashion liability rules that fairly attribute blame for organizations. He analyzes the games that corporations play to deflect criminal responsibility. And he also demonstrates how the exchange of cooperation for prosecutorial leniency and amnesty belies true law enforcement. But none of these factors, according to Laufer, trumps the fact that there is no single constituency or interest group that strongly and consistently advocates the importance and priority of corporate criminal liability. In the absence of a new standard of corporate liability, the power of regulators to keep corporate abuses in check will remain insufficient.             A necessary corrective to our current climate of graft and greed, Corporate Bodies and Guilty Minds will be essential to policymakers and legal minds alike.   “[This] timely work offers a dispassionate analysis of problems relating to corporate crime.”—Harvard Law Review

Institutions of Law offers an original account of the nature of law and legal systems in the contemporary world. It provides the definitive statement of Sir Neil MacCormick's well-known 'institutional theory of law', defining law as 'institutional normative order' and explaining each of thesethree terms in depth.

Thompson analyzes the process through which criminal responsibility is constructed and reproduced on the basis of race and gender. While feminist literature points to constructions of female offenders as “mad” and male offenders as “bad,” overall the results of this research do not support this perspective. Instead, major findings include strong and consistent evidence that African American defendants are less likely to receive psychiatric evaluations to determine mental status at the time of the offense. This implies that criminal justice officials have racial perceptions about the causes of crime; consequently, African American defendants may be portrayed as “normal” criminals who are held to a different level of responsibility than non-African Americans.

Divided into five sections, each with a contextualizing introduction by the volume editors, the collection covers in turn rational choice theories, including routine activities and situational crime prevention; biosocial and psychological theories, including criminal anthropology and arousal theory; sociological theories, including ecological and anomie theories; integrated theories; and conflict theories, including left realism, feminist criminology, and restorative justice. Taken together, these readings make a significant contribution to both the classical and contemporary debates about criminological theory.

Theories of Delinquency is a comprehensive survey of the theoretical approaches towards understanding delinquent behavior. Donald Shoemaker aptly presents all major individualistic and sociological theories in a standard format with basic assumptions, important concepts, and criticalevaluations. Theories covered include biological and psychological explanations, anomie and social disorganization, differential association, drift theory, labeling theory, critical theories, and explanations of female delinquency. Now in its sixth edition, Theories of Delinquency containsup-to-date discussions based on current research throughout, extensive revisions to control theories, especially the general theory of crime, and expanded coverage of integrated and cutting-edge theories. Clearly written, consistently organized, and now thoroughly updated, Theories of Delinquencyremains essential reading for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of crime and delinquency.

In this introduction to theory and method, students of organization will find a comprehensive view of the key theories in their field, combined with a toolkit of guidelines linking these to the different methods available for analyzing and interpreting organizational life. Distinguishing 'the external society' and the 'internal society', Antonio Strati sheds light on the different contexts that shape organizational life and the different levels of analysis that may be used. By showing the many levels at which organizations function and can be understood this book provides an invaluable introduction to analysis and research for advanced students. Recent concepts such as 'the organization as hypertext'; 'communities of practice'; 'tacit knowledge'; and organizational learning; are explored as ways of approaching organizations: this book shows how to link such approaches to appropriate methodologies in order to achieve insightful analysis.

"This is an exceptional book that comprehensively covers the interface between psychology and criminology regarding an empirical understanding of crime. It is written in an engaging and accessible manner, nicely linking key themes in order to situate the contribution of psychology to theories of criminal behaviour, strategies for informed practice, and contemporary challenges. It should prove to be an incredible resource for students, but also be of interest to researchers and clinicians.