Beginning with the story of Joe Arridy, certified as a "feeble-minded imbecile" who was executed in Colorado in 1939, Deadly Innocence? traces political and judicial handling of incidents involving persons with retardation; describes similar current cases; and offers suggestions for action on the part of the police, the courts, professionals who work in the field of developmental disabilities, and concerned citizens.

This bestselling book has become a staple of every serious true crime book collector's library. One of the most reliable concise sources of information available about serial killers and their crimes, this book offers a psychological and sociological analysis of this most frightening yet fascinating criminal. Psychologist David Lester, recognized worldwide as a leading authority on death-both in the fields of suicide and homicide-offers a much-needed assessment of whether or not there is a dependable and useable psychological profile of the serial killer. Separating the facts from the myths by combining documented case histories of notable serial killers with behavioral research, Serial Killers: The Insatiable Passion has been welcomed and applauded as an important addition to the literature on serial killers by criminologists, psychologists, sociologists, law enforcement and true crime buffs alike.

White-collar criminals are often assumed to be wealthy and powerful individuals who receive lenient treatment from the courts. This book-a major study of convicted white-collar offenders in America-provides a radically different portrait of these criminals and their punishments. Weisburd, Wheeler, Waring, and bode argue that the majority of white-collar criminals come from the middle classes and that judges often punish wrongdoers of higher status more harshly than less socially privileged criminals. Drawing from a large research project that had special access to confidential federal pre-sentence investigations, the authors are able to give a particularly rich and detailed view of white-collar crime-from securities fraud and anti-trust violations to embezzlement and tax fraud. Following offenders from their crimes through conviction and sentencing, their book provides a fresh look at a number of questions that have become central research and policy concerns. Fro example, they find that the most important factor that makes it possible to commit costly and damaging white-collar crimes is use of organizational resources. They state that, when sentencing white-collar criminals, judges consider the blameworthiness of defendants and the harm they inflict upon the community. The authors argue that the vast middle of our increasingly bureaucratic society has both more opportunities for financial wrongdoing and more susceptibility to it. They predict that white-collar crimes committed by these Americans will grow in significance as the nation approaches the twenty-first century.

A chilling exploration of the criminal mind--from juvenile delinquency to cold-blooded murder. Drawing on studies of offenders and victims, self-reports and autobiographies, narratve reconstructions of crime scenes, and famous cases, this brilliant and shocking book will forever revolutionize the way we think about crime.

In 1976 and 1977, over the course of a thirteen-month period, two boys and two girls, ages ten through twelve, were brutally murdered in Michigan's Oakland County. Their violent deaths triggered the largest murder investigation the state had seen. In Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, Tommy McIntyre provides a compelling and detailed account of the search for the Oakland County child killer. This is a story of tragedy and grief, dead-ends and disappointments.

This comprehensive and engaging textbook provides a fresh and sociologically-grounded examination of how deviance is constructed and defined and what it means to be classed a deviant. * Covers an array of deviances, including sexual, physical, mental, and criminal, as well as deviances often overlooked in the literature, such as elite deviance, cyber-deviance, and deviant occupations * Examines the popular notions and pseudoscientific explanations upon which the most pervasive myths surrounding deviance and deviants are founded * Features an analytical through-line assessing the complex and multifaceted relationship between deviance and the media * Enhanced with extensive pedagogical features, including a glossary of key terms, lists of specific learning outcomes in each chapter, and critical thinking questions designed to assess those outcomes * Comprehensive instructor ancillaries include PowerPoint slides, a test bank for each chapter, instructor outlines, and sample activities and projects; a student study guide also is available

An authoritative, interdisciplinary book which outlines how solution focused practice is particularly effective in addressing violent behaviour in clients and service users, encompassing work with both adults and children. Solution focused approaches have been used successfully with a range of violent behaviours from school-based bullying to severe domestic violence, as well as with victims of violence. Solution focused approaches hold people accountable for building solutions to their violent behaviour. The book shows how to engage clients in solution talk as opposed to problem talk, set useful goals and help clients to develop new behaviours. It outlines the practice principles and working techniques that make up solution focused practice with physical, emotional and sexual violence. Illustrative case studies and practice activities are provided. This book is suitable for anyone working to help reduce violent behaviour, including social workers, counsellors, therapists, nurses, probation workers and youth offending teams.

The law relating to fitness to plead is an increasingly important area of the criminal law. While criminalization may be justified whenever an offender commits a sufficiently serious moral wrong requiring that he or she be called to account, the doctrine of fitness to plead calls this principle into question in the case of a person who lacks the capacity or ability to participate meaningfully in a criminal trial. In light of the emerging focus on capacity-based approaches to decision-making and the international human rights requirement that the law should treat defendants fairly, this volume offers a benchmark for the theory and practice of fitness to plead, providing readers with a unique opportunity to consider differing perspectives and debate on the future development and direction of a doctrine which has up till now been under-discussed and under-researched. The fitness to plead rules stand as an exception to notions of public accountability for criminal wrongdoing yet, despite the doctrine's long-standing function in criminal procedure, it has proven complex to apply in practice and has given rise to many varied legislative models and considerable litigation in different jurisdictions. Particularly troublesome is the question of what is to be done with someone who has been found unfit to stand trial. Here the law is required to balance the need to protect those defendants who are unable to participate effectively in their own trial, whether permanently or for a defined period, and the need to protect the public from people who may have caused serious social harm as a result of their antisocial behaviour. The challenge for law reformers, legislators, and judges, is to create rules that ensure that everyone who can properly be tried is tried, while seeking to preserve confidence in the fairness of the legal system by ensuring that people who cannot properly engage in the criminal trial process are not forced to endure it.

A Closer Look at Prisons and Prison Inmates first explores how inmates perceive prisons in general, as well as particular aspects of the facilities where they serve time. In that sense, and after reviewing the literature regarding prison conditions and inmates' perceptions about prisons, a Prison Perception Scale is developed and assessed. Additionally, the authors examine how popular depictions of women in prison both interrupt and reinforce damaging stereotypes of incarcerated women. A content analysis of the popular Netflix series "Orange is the New Black" is provided in order to examine the hypothesis that incarcerated women are rarely presented as survivors in media. The closing chapter discusses some cause of recidivism if inmates such as lack of socialization, lack of job training, inability to adjust to social pressure, inability to reintegrate into the society after incarceration, lack of social support, mal-adjustment, lack of education, substance abuse, stigmatization and abuse.

This book challenges the widely held view that inmates create prison gangs to promote racism and violence. On the contrary, gangs form to create order. Most people assume that violent inmates left to themselves will descend into a chaotic anarchy, but that's not necessarily the case. This book studies the hidden order of the prison underworld to understand how order arises among outlaws. It uses economics to explore the secret world of the convict culture, inmate hierarchy, and prison gang politics. Inmates engaged in illegal activity cannot rely entirely on state-based governance institutions, such as courts of law and the police, to create order. Correctional officers will not resolve a dispute over a heroin deal gone wrong or help kill a predatory rapist. Yet, the inmate social system is relatively orderly and underground markets flourish. In today's prisons, gangs play a pivotal role in protecting inmates and facilitating illicit commerce. They have sophisticated internal structures and often rely on elaborate written constitutions. To maintain social order, gangs adjudicate conflicts and orchestrate strategic acts of violence to negotiate the competing demands of inmates, gang members, and correctional officers. This book uses economics to explain why prison gangs form, how formal institutions affect them, and why they have a powerful influence even over crime beyond prison walls. Economics explains the seemingly irrational, truly astonishing, and often tragic world of life among the society of captives.

What characterizes women s and girls pathways to crime?Girls, Women, and Crime: Selected Readings, Second Edition" "is a compilation of journal articles on the female offender written by leading researchers in the fields of criminology and women s studies. The contributors reveal the complex worlds females in the criminal justice system must often negotiate worlds that are frequently riddled with violence, victimization, discrimination, and economic marginalization. This in-depth collection leaves readers with a greater understanding of the complexities and nuances of the realtionship between girls and women and crime."

Sex is usually assumed to be a closely guarded secret of prison life. But it has long been the subject of intense scrutiny by both prison administrators and reformers--as well as a source of fascination and anxiety for the American public. Historically, sex behind bars has evoked radically different responses from professionals and the public alike. In "Criminal Intimacy," Regina Kunzel tracks these varying interpretations and reveals their foundational influence on modern thinking about sexuality and identity. Historians have held the fusion of sexual desire and identity to be the defining marker of sexual modernity, but sex behind bars, often involving otherwise heterosexual prisoners, calls those assumptions into question. By exploring the sexual lives of prisoners and the sexual culture of prisons over the past two centuries--along with the impact of a range of issues, including race, class, and gender; sexual violence; prisoners' rights activism; and the HIV epidemic--Kunzel discovers a world whose surprising plurality and mutability reveals the fissures and fault lines beneath modern sexuality itself. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including physicians, psychiatrists, sociologists, correctional administrators, journalists, and prisoners themselves--as well as depictions of prison life in popular culture--Kunzel argues for the importance of the prison to the history of sexuality and for the centrality of ideas about sex and sexuality to the modern prison. In the process, she deepens and complicates our understanding of sexuality in America.

"Interrupted Life" is a gripping collection of writings by and about imprisoned women in the United States, a country that jails a larger percentage of its population than any other nation in the world. This eye-opening work brings together scores of voices from both inside and outside the prison system including incarcerated and previously incarcerated women, their advocates and allies, abolitionists, academics, and other analysts. In vivid, often highly personal essays, poems, stories, reports, and manifestos, they offer an unprecedented view of the realities of women's experiences as they try to sustain relations with children and family on the outside, struggle for healthcare, fight to define and achieve basic rights, deal with irrational sentencing systems, remake life after prison; and more. Together, these powerful writings are an intense and visceral examination of life behind bars for women, and, taken together, they underscore the failures of imagination and policy that have too often underwritten our current prison system.

On 10 July 2014, the New York Advisory Committee held a briefing on New York's use of solitary confinement (or extreme isolation, as it is sometimes termed) of youth inmates. The expert presenters included representatives from various state and city agencies and institutions in the State of New York as well as advocates and former inmates. The Committee examined the extent of the use of solitary confinement of youth in the State of New York and the City of New York, and, in particular, the disproportionate assignment of racial minorities to solitary confinement. Based on the briefing, the book discusses the history of solitary confinement within the United States; the conditions of solitary confinement in New York jails; the mental, physical and developmental effects of solitary confinement on youth in New York jails; the primary legal protections related to solitary confinement of youth inmates; and the pending legislative, judicial and executive efforts to eliminate or limit the solitary confinement of youth.

This volume delivers a comprehensive study of banditry in Latin America and of its cultural representation. In its scope across the continent, looking closely at nations where bandit culture has manifested itself forcefully - Mexico (the subject of the case study), the Hispanic south-west of the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and Cuba - it imagines a 'Golden Age' of banditry in Latin America from the mid-nineteenth century to the 1940s when so-called 'social bandits', an idea first proposed by Eric Hobsbawm and further developed here, flourished. In its content, this work offers the most detailed and wide-ranging study of its kind currently available. Contents Introduction: The Idea of a Golden Age of Latin American Banditry 1850-1950 1. The Figure of the Bandit in History, Culture and Social Theory 2. Mexico: The Myth of the Bandit Nation 3. Mexico's Classic Bandit Narrative: Los de abajo 4. Beyond Mexico I: Bandit Cultures in Latin America 5. Beyond Mexico II: Chicano Bandit Cultures Conclusion

Experience has shown that if a jail does not meet the basic human needs of inmates, the inmates will find a way to satisfy their needs in ways that may be unfavorable to the orderly operation of the jail. Understanding what motivates human behavior provides jail administrators with a very useful tool for managing inmates since it helps explain both good inmate behavior and bad. This book not only provides guidance to jail practitioners as they implement this element, but it also provides self-assessment checklists to determine how well the jail is doing in the delivery of basic needs and suggestions for area of improvement. Violence, vandalism, and unsanitary conditions prevail in many jails na tionwide, frustrating jail practitioners who must ensure the safety and security of inmates, staff, and the public. These conditions often result from insufficient attention to inmate behavior management. Thankfully, over the past 25 years, important lessons about managing and controlling inmate behavior have emerged. One lesson is that a jail cannot control inmate be havior by focusing primarily on physical containment. A jail must actively manage inmate behavior to achieve a safe, clean, and secure environment, and this book provides tools for managing inmate behavior in this manner.

Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, brings his inimitable vision, exhaustive research, and mesmerizing prose to this timely book that dissects violence and offers new solutions to the age old problem of why people kill.

Lonnie Athens was raised by a brutally domineering father.  Defying all odds, Athens became a groundbreaking criminologist who turned his scholar's eye to the problem of why people become violent.  After a decade of interviewing several hundred violent convicts--men and women of varied background and ethnicity, he discovered "violentization," the four-stage process by which almost any human being can evolve into someone who will assault, rape, or murder another human being.  Why They Kill is a riveting biography of Athens and a judicious critique of his seminal work, as well as an unflinching investigation into the history of violence.

The United States witnessed increased attention to sex offender management policy at the federal, state and local levels beginning in the 1990s. As a result, laws have been enacted which impose a variety of post-incarceration controls on sex offenders, including but not limited to registration and community notification requirements, civil commitment, global positioning system (GPS) monitoring and tracking, as well as residency restriction. This book provides background information and examines relevant case law, with a particular focus on registration requirements and residency restrictions.

For years, criminologists have studied the relationship between crime and below-average intelligence, concluding that offenders usually possess IQ scores of 8 to 10 points below those of nonoffenders. Little, however, is known about the criminal behavior of those with above-average IQ scores. This book provides some of the first empirical information about the self-reported crimes of people with genius-level IQ scores. Combining quantitative data from 72 different offenses with qualitative data from 44 follow-up interviews, James C. Oleson describes the nature of crime by offenders of high IQ thereby shedding light on a population often ignored in research and yet sensationalized by media.

This work compiles experiences and lessons learned in meeting the unique needs of women and children regarding crime prevention and criminal justice, in particular the treatment and social reintegration of offenders, and serves a as a cross-disciplinary work for academic and policy-making analyses and follow-up in developing and developed countries. Furthermore, it argues for a more humane and effective approach to countering delinquency and crime among future generations. In a world where development positively depends on the rule of law and the related investment security, two global trends may chart the course of development: urbanization and education. Urbanization will globalize the concepts of "justice" and "fairness"; education will be dominated by the urban mindset and digital service economy, just as a culture of lawfulness will. This work looks at crime prevention education as an investment in the sustainable quality of life of succeeding generations, and at those who pursue such crime prevention as the providers of much-needed skills in the educational portfolio. Adopting a reformist approach, this work collects articles with findings and recommendations that may be relevant to domestic and international policymaking, including the United Nations Studies and their educational value for the welfare of coming generations. The books address the relevant United Nations ideas by combining them with academic approaches. Guided by the Editors' respective fields of expertise, and in full recognition of academic freedom and "organized scepticism", it includes contributions by lawyers, criminologists, sociologists and other eminent experts seeking to bridge the gap between academic and policy perspectives, as appropriate, against the international background, including the United Nations developments. The first volume opens with a foreword by Marta Santos Pais, the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, and a general introduction by the editors. Part I provides an overview of United Nations principles for crime prevention and the treatment of women and children. Part II concentrates on education and the social learning of children and adolescents. The importance of quality education is stressed as is its impact on the behaviour of children of all ages. It also includes a discussion of the factors that still hinder access to good schooling in many parts of the world. Part III presents international research findings on children, juveniles and women both as victims and offenders. Statistics show overwhelmingly that these groups are more often victims than offenders.

Two true-crime thrillers as seen on Discovery's Murder is Forever TV series.

MURDER, INTERRUPTED:
Rich, cheating financier Frank Howard wants his wife dead, and he's willing to pay Billie Earl Johnson whatever it takes, to the tune of $750,000. When his bullet misses the mark, Billie Earl and Frank will turn on each other in a fight for their lives...

MOTHER OF ALL MURDERS:
Dee Dee Blancharde is a local celebrity. Television reports praise her as a single mother who tirelessly cares for her wheelchair-bound, chronically ill daughter. But when the teenaged Gypsy Rose realises she isn't actually sick and Dee Dee has lied all these years, Gypsy Rose exacts her revenge...

Drawing on the latest evidence from the disparate worlds of mental health and criminal justice, Managing Personality Disordered Offenders in the Community provides a practical guide to the management and treatment of a group who comprise some of the most troubled offenders, who provoke the most anxiety in our society.

Illustrated throughout with relevant case examples, this book provides a detailed account of key issues in the assessment of both personality disorder and offending. Dowsett and Craissati explore the current state of knowledge regarding treatment approaches, before suggesting a framework for thinking about community management, legislation, and multi-agency practice. The book concludes with a discussion of community pilot projects currently taking place throughout England and Wales.

Managing Personality Disordered Offenders in the Community is an accessible and informative guide for trainees and practitioners working in the fields of mental health, social services, and the criminal justice system.

"Interrupted Life" is a gripping collection of writings by and about imprisoned women in the United States, a country that jails a larger percentage of its population than any other nation in the world. This eye-opening work brings together scores of voices from both inside and outside the prison system including incarcerated and previously incarcerated women, their advocates and allies, abolitionists, academics, and other analysts. In vivid, often highly personal essays, poems, stories, reports, and manifestos, they offer an unprecedented view of the realities of women's experiences as they try to sustain relations with children and family on the outside, struggle for healthcare, fight to define and achieve basic rights, deal with irrational sentencing systems, remake life after prison; and more. Together, these powerful writings are an intense and visceral examination of life behind bars for women, and, taken together, they underscore the failures of imagination and policy that have too often underwritten our current prison system.

Why I Chase Comedians and Other Bipolar Tales is written with self-observational humour and a comical self-deprecating irony. Frankie Owens takes the reader inside the turbulent mind of someone afflicted by hypermania. He deals with the extremities of the bipolar condition - highs, lows, in-betweens - allowing readers to understand its overwhelming nature. Written in the style of his acclaimed Little Book of Prison, this new work follows a relapse when the author (founder of the Read and Grow Society and by now a respected, law-abiding exponent of Criminology and Literacy) found himself back in prison following a manic episode. The book shows how he struggled with booming ideas, breathtaking feats of imagination, coming down to Earth and dealing with the wreckage. It contrasts the out-and-out ability of this well-respected expert in criminology and literacy with bizarre behaviour as he serves time a second time around and rebuilds his life once more. A rare journey into the bipolar mind which 'opens-up' on mental health. A raw, challenging, humorous account.

This informative and entertaining book, peppered with personal anecdotes and rich in case studies, adopts a unique approach to studying the causes of crime. Rather than relying on one theoretical position, Boyanowsky borrows from a range of theories to explain criminal behavior and answer questions central to the field of criminology. Crime and Criminality employs case studies, both notorious and lesser known, to bring theories to life and offer insight into vital contemporary issues, such as domestic violence, child pornography, genocide, the effect of climate change on crime, and the evolution of cybercrime. Engaging, accessible, and comparative in scope, this book is ideal for students and general readers interested in understanding the varied causes of crime. Introductions and summaries in each chapter make this an ideal text for criminology courses.