Drug Cartel and Gang Violence in Mexico and Central America: A Concise Introduction gives readers an overview of the issues associated with drugs, cartels, and gangs in Mexico and Central America. The readings are based on years of field research and interviews with regional leaders and local actors. The book examines the history and growth of Mexican drug cartels and the central role corruption plays in facilitating drug trafficking while simultaneously debilitating the Mexican state's efforts to confront them. The rise of Mexican community-based crime fighting is also discussed, as well as the changing role of Central American gangs, particularly in their relationship with Mexican drug-trafficking organizations. This edition includes new readings that feature current data and statistics on Mexican drug cartels and Central American gang violence, as well as an evaluation of Mexico's response to events in Jalisco from 2015 - 2018. Highly accessible, yet replete with valuable information and insight, Drug Cartel and Gang Violence in Mexico and Central America is ideal for courses in criminal justice, homeland security, and Latin American studies.

Shortlisted for the 2022 Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award. ***A Waterstones Best Books of 2022 pick*** A Financial Times, The Times and The Economist Book of the Year 'Gripping... A startling tale of fraud and impunity. ' The Economist 'I read it in one sitting, and I know it'll stay with me for a long time.' Oliver Bullough, Sunday Times bestselling author of Moneyland Inside the corrupt and secret business of global shipping, the explosive true story of a notorious international fraud and murder In July 2011, the oil tanker Brillante Virtuoso was drifting through the treacherous Gulf of Aden when a crew of pirates attacked and set her ablaze in a devastating explosion. But when David Mockett, a maritime surveyor working for Lloyd's of London, inspected the damaged vessel, he was left with more questions than answers. Soon after his inspection, he was murdered. Dead in the Water is a shocking expose of the criminal inner-workings of international shipping, an old-world industry at the backbone of our global economy. Through first-hand accounts of those who lived the hijacking - from members of the ship's crew and witnesses to the attacks, to the ex-London detectives turned private investigators seeking to solve Mockett's murder - award-winning reporters Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel piece together the astounding truth behind one of the most brazen financial frauds in history.

"Carrying ahead the project of cultural criminology, Phillips and Strobl dare to take seriously that which amuses and entertains us--and to find in it the most significant of themes. Audiences, images, ideologies of justice and injustice--all populate the pages of Comic Book Crime. The result is an analysis as colorful as a good comic, and as sharp as the point on a superhero's sword."--Jeff Ferrell, author of Empire of Scrounge Superman, Batman, Daredevil, and Wonder Woman are iconic cultural figures that embody values of order, fairness, justice, and retribution. Comic Book Crime digs deep into these and other celebrated characters, providing a comprehensive understanding of crime and justice in contemporary American comic books. This is a world where justice is delivered, where heroes save ordinary citizens from certain doom, where evil is easily identified and thwarted by powers far greater than mere mortals could possess. Nickie Phillips and Staci Strobl explore these representations and show that comic books, as a historically important American cultural medium, participate in both reflecting and shaping an American ideological identity that is often focused on ideas of the apocalypse, utopia, retribution, and nationalism. Through an analysis of approximately 200 comic books sold from 2002 to 2010, as well as several years of immersion in comic book fan culture, Phillips and Strobl reveal the kinds of themes and plots popular comics feature in a post-9/11 context. They discuss heroes' calculations of "deathworthiness," or who should be killed in meting out justice, and how these judgments have as much to do with the hero's character as they do with the actions of the villains. This fascinating volume also analyzes how class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation are used to construct difference for both the heroes and the villains in ways that are both conservative and progressive. Engaging, sharp, and insightful, Comic Book Crime is a fresh take on the very meaning of truth, justice, and the American way.Nickie D. Phillipsis Associate Professor in the Sociology and Criminal Justice Department at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, NY.Staci Stroblis Associate Professor in the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.In theAlternative Criminologyseries

Punishment and Society features a distinct focus on the societal impact of incarceration, rather than the institutions of prison and jail. The anthology provides students with diverse perspectives regarding imprisonment from those who are experiencing and directly affected by incarceration. Readers learn about the widespread impact of punishment and incarceration not only from those who are imprisoned, but from the people they know and the communities to which they belong on the outside. The collection includes 13 readings that examine the nuances of incarceration, including its intersection with race and gender, the financial and emotional impact on families and children, and the impact on communities most affected by mass incarceration. The readings identify incarceration as a form of social control and underscore the dire consequences of the system on individuals, families, and communities. Following each reading, discussion questions inspire critical thinking about the broader context of how incarceration and punishment influence society. Written to challenge students to rethink what it means to punish people in society and consider its holistic ramifications, Punishment and Society is an ideal primary or supplementary resource for courses in criminal justice.

This book explains how improvements in intelligence analysis can bene!t policing. Written by experts with experience in police higher education and professional practice, this accessible text provides students with both practical knowledge and a critical understanding of the subject. The book is divided into three key parts: Part One outlines how the concept of intelligence was initially embraced and implemented by the police and provides a critique of intelligence sources. It examines the strategic use of intelligence and its procedural framework. It provides a summary of the role of the intelligence analyst, establishing the characteristics of effective practitioners. Part Two describes good practice and explains the practical tools and techniques that effective analysts use in the reduction and investigation of crime. Part Three examines more recent developments in intelligence analysis and looks to the future. This includes the move to multi-agency working, the advent of big data and the role of AI and machine learning. Filled with case studies and practical examples, this book is essential reading for all undergraduates and postgraduates taking courses in Professional Policing, and Criminal Justice more widely. It will also be of interest to existing practitioners in this field.

Scholars and lay persons alike routinely express concern about the capacity of democratic publics to respond rationally to emotionally charged issues such as crime, particularly when race and class biases are invoked. This is especially true in the United States, which has the highest imprisonment rate in the developed world, the result, many argue, of too many opportunities for elected officials to be highly responsive to public opinion. Limiting the power of democratic publics, in this view, is an essential component of modern governance precisely because of the risk that broad democratic participation can encourage impulsive, irrational and even murderous demands. These claims about panic-prone mass publics-about the dangers of 'mob rule'-are widespread and are the central focus of Lisa L. Miller's The Myth of Mob Rule. Are democratic majorities easily drawn to crime as a political issue, even when risk of violence is low? Do they support 'rational alternatives' to wholly repressive practices, or are they essentially the bellua multorum capitum, the "many-headed beast," winnowing problems of crime and violence down to inexorably harsh retributive justice? Drawing on a comparative case study of three countries-the U.S., the U.K. and the Netherlands-The Myth of Mob Rule explores when and with what consequences crime becomes a politically salient issue. Using extensive data from multiple sources, the analyses reverses many of the accepted causal claims in the literature and finds that: serious violence is an important underlying condition for sustained public and political attention to crime; the United States has high levels of both crime and punishment in part because it has failed, in racially stratified ways, to produce fundamental collective goods that insulate modern democratic citizens from risk of violence, a consequence of a democratic deficit, not a democratic surplus; and finally, countries with multi-party parliamentary systems are more responsive to mass publics than the U.S. on crime and that such responsiveness promotes protection from a range of social risks, including from excessive violence and state repression.

America is the most punitive nation in the world, incarcerating more than 2.3 million people--or one in 136 of its residents. Against the backdrop of this unprecedented mass imprisonment, punishment permeates everyday life, carrying with it complex cultural meanings. In The Culture of Punishment, Michelle Brown goes beyond prison gates and into the routine and popular engagements of everyday life, showing that those of us most distanced from the practice of punishment tend to be particularly harsh in our judgments.

The Culture of Punishment takes readers on a tour of the sites where culture and punishment meet--television shows, movies, prison tourism, and post 9/11 new war prisons--demonstrating that because incarceration affects people along distinct race and class lines, it is only a privileged group of citizens who are removed from the experience of incarceration. These penal spectators, who often sanction the infliction of pain from a distance, risk overlooking the reasons for democratic oversight of the project of punishment and, more broadly, justifications for the prohibition of pain.

Radical Criminology, edited by Jeff Shantz Kwantlen Polytecnic University, Vancouver, British Columbia], is dedicated to bridging the gap between the academy and the global activist community, especially with regard to state violence, state-corporate crime, the growth of surveillance regimes, and the prison-industrial complex. More pointedly, the journal aims to be not simply a project of critique, but is also geared toward a praxis of struggle, insurgence, and practical resistance. Issue 1 includes: EDITORIAL: Radical Criminology: A Manifesto; FEATURES: Security Assemblages and Spaces of Exception: The Production of (Para-)Militarized Spaces in the U.S. War on Drugs by Markus Kienscherf; Contesting the 'Justice Campus': Abolitionist Resistance to Liberal Carceral Expansion by Judah Schept; Cooperation versus Competition in Nature and Society: The Contribution of Piotr Kropotkin to Evolution Theory by Urbano Fra Paleo; ART: We are coming . . . strong . . . unstoppable: A Global Balkans Interview with Belgrade Artist Milica Ruzicic; + Zrenjanin, Jugoremedija, 2004 (a note on the cover painting); Series of paintings on police brutality by Milica Ruzicic; INSURGENCIES: Repression, Resistance, and the Neocolonial Prison Nation: Notes on the 2010 Struggle of the California Prisoners' Hunger Strike by K. Kersplebedeb; Prison Expansionism, Media, and "Offender Pools" An Abolitionist Perspective on the Criminalization of Minorities in the Canadian Criminal Justice System by Steven Nguyen; BOOK REVIEWS: The Red Army Faction-A Documentary History. Vol. I: Projectiles for the People, by J. Smith and Andre Moncourt (Eds.), reviewed by Guido G. Preparata; Freedom Not Yet: Liberation and the Next World Order, by Kenneth Surin, reviewed by Jeff Shantz

Explaining cybercrime in a highly networked world, this book provides a comprehensive yet accessible summary of the history, modern developments, and efforts to combat cybercrime in various forms at all levels of government-international, national, state, and local. As the exponential growth of the Internet has made the exchange and storage of information quick and inexpensive, the incidence of cyber-enabled criminal activity-from copyright infringement to phishing to online pornography-has also exploded. These crimes, both old and new, are posing challenges for law enforcement and legislators alike. What efforts-if any-could deter cybercrime in the highly networked and extremely fast-moving modern world? Introduction to Cybercrime: Computer Crimes, Laws, and Policing in the 21st Century seeks to address this tough question and enables readers to better contextualize the place of cybercrime in the current landscape. This textbook documents how a significant side effect of the positive growth of technology has been a proliferation of computer-facilitated crime, explaining how computers have become the preferred tools used to commit crimes, both domestically and internationally, and have the potential to seriously harm people and property alike. The chapters discuss different types of cybercrimes-including new offenses unique to the Internet-and their widespread impacts. Readers will learn about the governmental responses worldwide that attempt to alleviate or prevent cybercrimes and gain a solid understanding of the issues surrounding cybercrime in today's society as well as the long- and short-term impacts of cybercrime. Provides accessible, comprehensive coverage of a complex topic that encompasses identity theft to copyright infringement written for non-technical readers Pays due attention to important elements of cybercrime that have been largely ignored in the field, especially politics Supplies examinations of both the domestic and international efforts to combat cybercrime Serves an ideal text for first-year undergraduate students in criminal justice programs

This new book brings together some of the leading criminologists across Europe, to showcase the best of European criminology. This Handbook aims to reflect the range and depth of current work in Europe, and to counterbalance the impact of the sometimes insular and ethnocentric Anglo-American criminological tradition. The end-product is a collection of twenty-eight chapters illustrating a truly comparative and interdisciplinary European criminology.

The editors have assembled a cast of leading voices to reflect on differences and commonalities, elaborate on theoretically grounded comparisons and reflect on emerging themes in criminology in Europe. After the editors introduction, the book is organised in three parts:

• Five chapters offering historical, theoretical and policy oriented overviews of European issues in crime and crime control,
• Seven chapters looking at different dimensions of crime in Europe, includingcrime trends, state crime, gender and crime and urban safety

Fifteen chapters examining the variety of institutional responses, exploring issues such as policing, juvenile justice, punishment, green crime and the role of the victim.
This book gives some indication of the richness and scope of the emerging comparative European criminology. It will be required reading for anyone who wants to understand trends in crime and its control across Europe. It will be a valuable teaching resource, especially at postgraduate level, as well as an important reference point for researchers and scholars of criminology across Europe.

Special offer of 125.00 for three months after publication. Offer expires 23rd October 2013.

This book accurately identifies the various forms of identity theft in simple, easy-to-understand terms, exposes exaggerated and erroneous information, and explains how everyone can take action to protect themselves. Identity theft is a classic crime with a modern (and perhaps decidedly American) twist. The rise of technology over the past few decades-and its influence on the processes of modernization and globalization-has created many new opportunities for identity theft both locally and internationally. Moreover, this process has transformed the nature of identity from something largely personal to something almost purely financial. Although identity theft is not a global crime per se, it does pose a pervasive and universal threat that will need to be acknowledged and addressed by many nations throughout the world. In this text, author Megan McNally examines the concept of identity theft in universal terms in order to understand what it is, how it is accomplished, and what the nations of the world can do-individually or collectively-to prevent it or respond to it.

Crime in the United States contains findings from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the offenses known to law enforcement. This reference is the most comprehensive official compilation of crime statistics in the United States and is an important addition to your library's collection. Since the FBI no longer prints these findings, Bernan Press continues to provide this practical information in convenient book form. In this intricately detailed source, legal and law enforcement professionals, researchers, and those who are just curious will find violent and property crime statistics for the nation as well as for regions, states, counties, cities, towns, and even college and university campuses. Crime in the United States includes statistics for: Offenses known to police Violent crime offenses: murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault Property crime offenses: burglary, larcency-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson Clearance data: crimes solved by police or cleared by exceptional means Persons arrested Police employees: sworn officers and civilian law enforcement personnel Hate crimes with data by offense type, location, bias motivation, victim type, number of victims, and race of offender

Radical Criminology, edited by Jeff Shantz Kwantlen Polytecnic University, Vancouver, British Columbia], is dedicated to bridging the gap between the academy and the global activist community, especially with regard to state violence, state-corporate crime, the growth of surveillance regimes, and the prison-industrial complex. More pointedly, the journal aims to be not simply a project of critique, but is also geared toward a praxis of struggle, insurgence, and practical resistance. Issue 3 (Winter 2014) includes: EDITORIAL / Jeff Shantz, "Neither Justice nor Crime (We Are All Criminals Now)" -- FEATURES/Nicholas Chagnon, "Heinous Crime or Acceptable Violence? The Disparate Framing of Femicides in Hawai'ii -- Tage Alalehto, "Ivar Kreuger: An International Swindler of Magnitude" -- ARTS/"Art Against Extraction Industries, feat. cover artist Fanny Aishaa, + Likhts'amisyu hereditary chief Toghestiy, Gord Hill +more" -- INSURGENCIES/Christopher Petrella, "The Color of Corporate Corrections, Part II: Contractual Exemptions and the Overrepresentation of People of Color in Private Prisons" -- Aiyana Ormond, "Jaywalking to Jail: Capitalism, mass incarceration and social control on the streets of Vancouver" -- Vicki Chartrand, "Tears 4 Justice and the Missing and Murdered Women and Children Across Canada: An Interview with Gladys Radek" -- BOOK REVIEWS/"Drawing the Line Once Again" (by Paul Goodman), reviewed by Jeff Shantz

Winner, 2017 American Society of Criminology's Division on Critical Criminology and Social Justice Best Book Award An examination of the neoliberal politics of incarceration The growth of mass incarceration in the United States eludes neat categorization as a product of the political Right. Liberals played important roles in both laying the foundation for and then participating in the conservative tough on crime movement that is largely credited with the rise of the prison state. But what of those politicians and activists on the Left who reject punitive politics in favor of rehabilitation and a stronger welfare state? Can progressive policies such as these, with their benevolent intentions, nevertheless contribute to the expansion of mass incarceration? In Progressive Punishment, Judah Schept offers an ethnographic examination into the politics of incarceration in Bloomington, Indiana in order to consider the ways that liberal discourses about therapeutic justice and rehabilitation can uphold the logics, practices and institutions that comprise the carceral state. Schept examines how political leaders on the Left, despite being critical of mass incarceration, advocated for a "justice campus" that would have dramatically expanded the local criminal justice system. At the root of this proposal, Schept argues, is a confluence of neoliberal-style changes in the community that naturalized prison expansion as political common sense among leaders negotiating crises of deindustrialization, urban decline, and the devolution of social welfare. In spite of the momentum that the proposal gained, Schept uncovers resistance among community organizers, who developed important strategies and discourses to challenge the justice campus, disrupt some of the logics that provided it legitimacy, and offer new possibilities for a non-carceral community. A well-researched and well-narrated study, Progressive Punishment offers a novel perspective on the relationship between liberal politics, neoliberalism, and mass incarceration.

This book is a systematic examination of the nature of America's crime and criminal justice system as defined by its policy-makers at different times and in disparate contexts of social and political realities. By examining legislative documents and court cases and analyzing federal and state policy developments in such areas as drug crimes, juvenile crimes, sex crimes, and cyber crimes, this book provides a historically embedded and policy relevant understanding of how America's system of criminal justice was born, how it has grown, and where it is going.

Sentencing matters. Life, liberty, and property are at stake. Convicted offenders and victims care about it for obvious reasons, while judges and prosecutors also have a moral stake in the process. Never-the-less, the current system of sentencing criminal offenders is in a shambles, with a crazy quilt of incompatible and conflicting laws, policies, and practices in each state, not to mention an entirely different process at the federal level. In Sentencing Fragments, Michael Tonry traces four decades of American sentencing policy and practice to illuminate the convoluted sentencing system, from early reforms in the mid-1970's to the transition towards harsher sentences in the mid-1980's. The book combines a history of policy with an examination of current research findings regarding the consequences of the sentencing system, calling attention to the devastatingly unjust effects on the lives of the poor and disadvantaged. Tonry concludes with a set of proposals for creating better policies and practices for the future, with the hope of ultimately creating a more just legal system. Lucid and engaging, Sentencing Fragments sheds a much-needed light on the historical foundation for the current dynamic of the American criminal justice system, while simultaneously offering a useful tool for potential reform.

The surprising and unofficial system of social control and regulation that keeps crime rates low in New York City's Washington Square Park Located in New York City's Greenwich Village, Washington Square Park is a 9.75-acre public park that is perhaps best known for its historic Washington Square Arch, a landmark at the foot of 5th Avenue. Hundreds, if not thousands, pass through the park every day, some sit on benches enjoying the sunshine, play a game of chess, watch their children play in the playground, take their dog to the dog runs, or sit by the fountain or, sometimes, buy or sell drugs. The park has an extremely low crime rate. Sociologist, and local resident, Erich Goode wants to know why. He notes that many visitors do violate park rules and ordinances, even engaging in misdemeanors like cigarette and marijuana smoking, alcohol consumption, public urination, skateboarding and bike riding. And yet, he argues, contrary to the well-known "broken windows" theory, which suggests that small crimes left unchecked lead to major crimes, serious crimes hardly ever take place there. Why with such an immense volume of infractions-and people-are there so little felonious or serious, and virtually no violent, crime? With rich and detailed observations as well as in-depth interviews, Goode demonstrates how onlookers, bystanders, and witnesses-both denizens and your average casual park visitor-provide an effective system of social control, keeping more serious wrongdoing in check. Goode also profiles the parks visitors, showing us that the park is a major draw to residents and tourists alike. Visitors come from all over; only a quarter of the park's visitors live in the neighborhood (the Village and SoHo), one out of ten are tourists, and one out of six are from upper Manhattan or the Bronx. Goode looks at the patterns of who visits the park, when they come, and, once in the park, where they go. Regardless of where they live, Goode argues, all of the Park's visitors help keep the park safe and lively. The Taming of New York's Washington Square is an engaging and entertaining look at a surprisingly safe space in the heart of Manhattan.

The book consists of the keynote papers delivered at the 2012 WG Hart Workshop on Globalisation, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice organised by the Queen Mary Criminal Justice Centre. The volume addresses, from a cross-disciplinary perspective, the multifarious relationship between globalisation on the one hand, and criminal law and justice on the other hand. At a time when economic, political and cultural systems across different jurisdictions are increasingly becoming or are perceived to be parts of a coherent global whole, it appears that the study of crime and criminal justice policies and practices can no longer be restricted within the boundaries of individual nation-states or even particular transnational regions. But in which specific fields, to what extent, and in what ways does globalisation influence crime and criminal justice in disparate jurisdictions? Which are the factors that facilitate or prevent such influence at a domestic and/or regional level? And how does or should scholarly inquiry explore these themes? These are all key questions which are addressed by the contributors to the volume. In addition to contributions focusing on theoretical and comparative dimensions of globalisation in criminal law and justice, the volume includes sections focusing on the role of evidence in the development of criminal justice policy, the development of European criminal law and its relationship with national and transnational legal orders, and the influence of globalisation on the interplay between criminal and administrative law.