Crime, The Mystery of the Common-Sense Concept

By: Robert Reiner

• Description
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• Reviews
• Table of Contents
• Author Information

Description

Crime is a source of endless fascination and fear. Yet behind the apparent consensus that crime must be fought, there is considerable conflict about what should or should not be treated as criminal, and even the most shocking crimes can inspire divisive debate.

This concise book explores the seemingly simple, common-sense concept of crime revealing the huge complexities, ambiguities and tensions that lie beneath it. Criminal law is often at odds with different moral perspectives and the practices of different cultures. The mass media distort the picture profoundly, as do politicians in pursuit of law and order votes. The criminal justice system tackles only a limited range of crimes almost entirely ones committed by the poor and relatively powerless while often neglecting the most dangerous and harmful activities of corporations and states, from the carnage of unjust wars to the tragedies engendered by austerity. It is only by examining the multiple and varied perspectives on crime that we can begin to understand and respond appropriately to this social phenomenon.

Written by a world-leading criminologist, this insightful book will be an invaluable and captivating introduction for students and interested readers of criminology, law, sociology and politics.

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* Exam copies only available to lecturers for whom the book may be suitable as a course text.
Please note: Sales representation and distribution for Polity titles is provided by John Wiley and Sons Ltd.

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Reviews

"This book displays in abundance the hallmarks of Robert Reiner s work: it synthesizes a vast amount of literature and data into a remarkably accessible and compelling narrative, and it is both sociologically dispassionate and morally serious about its subject matter. The result is an accomplished introduction to the concept of crime."
Ian Loader, University of Oxford

"'Crime' is a keyword in contemporary politics and culture: widely used, powerfully consequential, and for all its seeming simplicity deeply complex and contested. In this masterly account, Robert Reiner traces the concept s multiple meanings and ramifications, its role in criminological theory and political discourse, and its intimate association with the history of capitalism. This is an essential, eye-opening guide to one of the central issues of our time."
David Garland, New York University

"Reiner brings together a vast amount of literature, and makes a compelling case."
Professional Security Magazine Online

"Crime is a succinct and eminently readable work that is none the worse for its occasional streak of combativeness. Notwithstanding the variety of topics covered, Reiner s writing is invariably clear, rich in detail and draws on a variety of theoretical and empirical studies."
LSE Review of Books

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Table of Contents

Introduction. Crime: Conundrums of a Common-Sense Concept

Chapter One. Legal Conceptions of Crime

Chapter Two. Moral Conceptions of Crime

Chapter Three. Everybody s Doing It: Social Conceptions of Crime and Deviance

Chapter Four. How Do They Get Away With It? The Non-Criminalization of the Powerful

Chapter Five. The Criminal Justice Process and Conceptions of Crime

Chapter Six. Media, Crime and the Politics of Law and Order

Chapter Seven. Whodunnit and Why? Criminological Conceptions of Crime

Conclusion. Crime: A Capital Concept

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Author Information

Robert Reiner is Professor of Criminology at the London School of Economics and Political Science

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