How much do we really know about crime and criminals? About the effectiveness - or otherwise- of the measures used by courts to deter, reform, or incapacitate offenders? In this critical introduction, refreshingly free of jargon or political bias, Nigel Walker tackles these and other central questions of the criminological debate. No respecter of accepted orthodoxies, he highlights the fallacies and failings of most explanations of criminal behaviour, and emphasizes the importance of rules as a determinant of human conduct, the crucial difference between rule-following and rule-breaking behaviour, and the special status of those rules that constitute the criminal and penal codes. After a comprehensive yet concise survey of the problems and their possible solutions, Nigel Walker goes on to explain the current popularity of 'just deserts' as an aim, and finally to ask whether we are leaving the war against crime, if there is indeed such a war, too much to the professionals and if we do so at our peril. Readership: criminologists, sociologists, social workers, penologists, politicians; students of those disciplines
- ISBN10 0192891936
- ISBN13 9780192891938
- Publish Date 1 December 1987 (first published 18 June 1987)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 4 December 1992
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Oxford University Press
- Imprint Oxford Paperbacks
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 232
- Language English