This book offers an up-to-date analysis of these contemporary trends,offering honest and concerned citizens a concise yet comprehensive survey of the sources of current crime problems. It shows that the dominant tough law-and-order approach is based on fallacies about crime's nature and sources, and about what works in crime control. The growth of crime has deep-seated causes, so policing and penal policy only hold a precarious lid down on offending. With its critical survey of current policies, problems and debates, this book is also an excellent introduction to criminology for the growing numbers of students of the subject.

Crime stories saturate the mass media and politicians shrilly compete with each other to be the toughest on crime. Prisons are crammed to bursting point, and police powers and resources repeatedly extended.After decades of explosive increases in crime rates, these plummeted throughout the Western world in the 1990s. Yet fear of crime and violence, and the security industries catering for these anxieties,grow relentlessly.

This book offers an up-to-date analysis of these contemporary trends,offering honest and concerned citizens a concise yet comprehensive survey of the sources of current crime problems. It shows that the dominant tough law-and-order approach is based on fallacies about crime's nature and sources, and about what works in crime control. The growth of crime has deep-seated causes, so policing and penal policy only hold a precarious lid down on offending. With its critical survey of current policies, problems and debates, this book is also an excellent introduction to criminology for the growing numbers of students of the subject.

Preface and Acknowledgements

1 Introduction: Neoliberalism, Crime and Control

2 An Inspector Calls: Putting Crime in its Place

3 A Mephistophelean Calculus: Measuring Crime Trends

4 Permissiveness versus Political Economy:Explaining Crime Trends

5 A New Leviathan? Law and Order Politics and Tough Crime Control

6 Conclusion: Law and Order-a 20:20 Vision

Notes

References

Index