Attempts to understand serial murder tend to focus on individual cases rather than the social context in which they occur. In contrast, this book sets the case of nineteenth-century serial killer Mary Ann Cotton in its full social context. Drawing from historical records of Cotton's court appearances, it shows how institutions such as the family, economy, and religion shaped the environment she inhabited.

Mawson proposes that transient criminality results from acute environmental stress and/or physiological disturbances in a context of diminished social supports. He posits a synthesis of situational factors and social and life-sciences concepts to explain stress-induced crime, and illustrates how the resulting model can explain theft, burglary, vandalism, homicide, assault, and rape. . . . will be helpful to any who wants to understand more about single or spasmodic violent crime perpetrators.

"Police & Security Bulletin"

Mawson proposes that transient criminality results from acute environmental stress and/or physiological disturbances in a context of diminished social supports. He posits a synthesis of situational factors and social and life-sciences concepts to explain stress-induced crime, and illustrates how the resulting model can explain theft, burglary, vandalism, homicide, assault, and rape. This new text includes discussions on the existing literature on the link between stress and criminality; the existing models of stress-induced crime; a new model of motivational behavior; a critique of the concept of conscience; the application of a new model to specific types of crime; and the various cognitive transformations in relation to crime.

The New York Times bestselling True Crime Files series continues with this haunting collection of the dangers lurking among those we trust the most-from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Stranger Beside Me. Doomed relationships and deadly betrayals are at the heart of this unputdownable collection of true cases from the personal files of Ann Rule, "America's best true-crime writer" (Kirkus Reviews). First is one of the most tragic unsolved crimes of the last twenty years: the disappearance of Susan Powell and the murder of her two young sons. With in-depth research and clear-eyed compassion, Rule leaves no stone unturned as she searches for the truth in this shocking story. Rule also chronicles the strange tale of a Coronado, California mansion that was the site of two horrifying deaths only days apart: a billionaire's son's plunge from a balcony and his girlfriend's hanging. Although the cases are quickly closed, baffling questions remain. In these and seven other riveting cases, Ann Rule exposes the twisted truth behind the facades of Fatal Friends, Deadly Neighbors.

In many jurisdictions today, life imprisonment is the most severe penalty that can be imposed. Despite this, it is a relatively under-researched form of punishment and no meaningful attempt has been made to understand its full human rights implications. This important collection fills that gap by addressing these two key questions: what is life imprisonment and what human rights are relevant to it? These questions are explored from the perspective of a range of jurisdictions, in essays that draw on both empirical and doctrinal research. Under the editorship of two leading scholars in the field, this innovative and important work will be a landmark publication in the field of penal studies and human rights.

This insightful book focuses on developments since the publication in 2007 of the Corston Report into women and criminal justice. While some of its recommendations were accepted by government, actual policy has restricted the scale and scope of change. This book explores developments since Corston, as well as possible future directions resulting from the Coalition Government's 'Transforming Rehabilitation' plans. This timely analysis engages with wide-ranging considerations for policy-makers, providers and practitioners of services and interventions for women who offend, and questions whether women should be treated differently in the criminal justice system.

Little of what we know about prison comes from the mouths of prisoners, and very few academic accounts of prison life manage to convey some of its most profound and important features: its daily pressures and frustrations, the culture of the wings and landings, and the relationships which shape the everyday experience of being imprisoned. The Prisoner aims to redress this by foregrounding prisoners' own accounts of prison life in what is an original and penetrating edited collection. Each of its chapters explores a particular prisoner sub-group or an important aspect of prisoners' lives, and each is divided into two sections: extended extracts from interviews with prisoners, followed by academic commentary and analysis written by a leading scholar or practitioner. This structure allows prisoners' voices to speak for themselves, while situating what they say in a wider discussion of research, policy and practice. The result is a rich and evocative portrayal of the lived reality of imprisonment and a poignant insight into prisoners' lives. The book aims to bring to life key penological issues and to provide an accessible text for anyone interested in prisons, including students, practitioners and a general audience. It seeks to represent and humanize a group which is often silent in discussions of imprisonment, and to shine a light on a world which is generally hidden from view.

The probation service's venture into financial partnerships with non-statutory agencies during the 1990s was viewed both as a development opportunity for improving sevices and as a threat to professional identity and job security. Judith Rumgay studies partnership development with particular focus on programs for substance misusing offenders. She explores tensions between probation and voluntary organizations, identifies features common to successful partnerships, and compares partnership arrangements with in-house specialist projects. She argues that the partnership enterprise touches the heart of the probation service's mission in local communities.

The high rate of suicide and self-harm in prisons around the world is of major concern to prison administrators, coroners, all those who work in prisons, observers of the justice system as well as prisoners and their families. This book provides a comprehensive overview of attempts to minimize the incidence of self-harming behaviour in custodial settings. Expert contributors from nine different countries offer a global perspective on what is a widespread problem of international concern.

The perpetration of intimate partner violence by women has long been a controversial topic. More recently, researchers, treatment providers and other professionals have begun to critically examine theoretical, research and practice perspectives to gather a better understanding of this controversial issue. The current text will provide the reader with a more thorough discussion on our current understanding of the context and motivation of women's use of violence against intimate partners. This text will discuss the controversies related to the arrest and treatment of women arrested for domestic violence from a variety of theoretical perspectives while also providing updates on the current research focusing on typologies of female offenders. The text also provides a critical review of current treatment strategies for women arrested for domestic violence.

The contributors are the foremost leaders in the field of research and practice on intimate partner violence offending and have written chapters that provide a key review of the work that is currently emerging in the field. As a result, this text is the most comprehensive guide to date that discusses female perpetration of intimate partner violence. Recommendations for specific treatment with this population and implications for practice and policy are provided throughout.

This book was published as a special double issue of the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma.

The application of psychological principles to research and practice in crime prevention, detection, legal processes and offender treatment is a feature of the growing number of advanced undergraduate courses and graduate courses, and professional training programmes. This book reflects the need to provide an overview of psychological knowledge and its forensic applications and implications, to psychology students and its forensic applications and implications, to psychology students and to related professional disciplines such as psychiatry, nursing, policing, law, prison work and probation.
The Editors are very well known academics and clinicians. The chapters are written by contributors who are recognised leaders in their own fields, and they have provided accessible accounts of the applications and implications of behavioural sciences for their peers, and for professionals and students in other disciplines. Multi-professional case work and innovative approaches to crime and offenders are being supported by research, by poicy and by legislation. There is a growing need to provide a wide range of professionals with a common framework and knowledge base to aid their shared understanding of crime and offenders, and of related interventions.
""Behaviour, Crime and Legal Processes" will be of great interest to psychologists, psychiatrists, lawyers and others concerned with understanding and treating offenders. The book is readable, scholarly and wide-ranging, covering legal issues, psychology and the police, witness evidence, decision-making in court, criminological theories, risk assessment and the treatment of mentally disordered and sex offenders." - Professor DavidFarrington, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, UK

The past quarter-century has witnessed a dramatic upsurge of violent crime in the United States and abroad. In this country, the rise in violent criminal activity has been consistently documented in such published accounts as the Uniform Crime Reports and the Statistical Handbook on Violence in America, published by the FBI and the Vio lence Research Group, respectively. Further, social scientists-particularly those working in the fields of sociology and psychology-have provided a convergence of findings attesting to the magnitude of one of today's most significant social problems: domestic violence (e. g., spouse, child, and elder abuse). Such efforts have served as the impetus for heightened clinical and investigative activity in the area of violent be havior. Indeed, a wide range of mental health experts (such as psychologists, psychi atrists, social workers, counselors, and rehabilitation specialists) have endeavored to focus on strategies and issues in research and treatment for violent individuals and their victims. The purpose of this book is to provide a comprehensive and timely examination of current psychological approaches with violent criminal offenders. Despite the fact that we continue to have much to learn about perpetrators of violent acts, in recent an increasingly large body of empirical data have been adduced about this years issue. However, these data generally have appeared in disparate journals and books. That being the case, it is our belief that such a handbook now is warranted."

Sex offenders, and in particular paedophiles, have been the subject of much political and media attention, producing intensive debates about the best way of dealing with them. This book explores these issues, evaluating the measures in use or being considered, including drug treatment, MAPPA, the use of the Sex Offender Register, restorative justice techniques, and treatment programmes. It is concerned with high-risk sex offenders both when they are sentenced to a community order, and also when they are released back into the community after a custodial sentence.

The introductory section opens with a discussion on how terms such as paedophilia are constructed and viewed, and then looks at how government policy regarding sex offending has developed over recent years. Section two looks at issues concerned with risk management, questioning whether enough is being done to monitor the risk that high-risk offenders pose when released into society; whilst section three, on risk reduction covers the main methods of treatment, including sex offender treatment programmes, pharmacotherapy (chemical castration) and restorative and reintegration techniques.

Section Four focuses on specific offender groups; including female sexual offenders, sexual harm by youth, mentally disordered sexual offenders and intellectual disabled offenders. These assess in what ways these offenders are different to the 'norm' and look at how we should be dealing and treating these differences.

The final section looks at social and moral responsibilities, including the patterns, prevention and protection of cyber-sex offences and media constructions of and reactions to paedophilia. In the final chapter the concept of dignity is addressed and the balance between community protection and the rights of sex offenders involved is evaluated.

From arrest to release, the organizational response to mentally ill offenders is continually evolving according to existing policies and resources. How organizations respond, how they should respond, and their ability to evolve is important. The chapters in this volume offer cases with wide ranging policy implications regarding structural and functional changes institutions and organizations might consider given the confines of context and resources to improve the conditions of mentally ill offenders. Policies regarding mentally ill offenders are played out differently by state and county, and the capacity of communities to support individuals with mental illness and criminal histories varies. The quantitative and qualitative research on organizational responses to offenders with mental illness highlighted herein include program evaluation; data collection; best practices in resource utilization; dispositions and the courts; screening; and a broader articulation of outcomes given the special needs of the population.

A critical perspective on the treatment of incarcerated women-and their children Inside and Out: Women, Prison, and Therapy challenges conventional thinking about the therapeutic issues facing female prisoners and their children. Therapists, counselors, scholars, and activists examine the injustices of the criminal justice system and the roles feminist therapists can play in deconstructing and demystifying the lives of women prisoners by becoming more involved in clinical work. Inside and Out: Women, Prison, and Therapy examines this growing problem from a feminist perspective, debunking stereotypes about women perpetrators with a thorough examination of gender-responsive treatment of women in a variety of settings. This unique book includes a macro analysis of gender and criminality; an assessment of violence and the abuse of women; parenting and the impact of incarceration on children; treatment approaches developed specifically for women prisoners; and an outline of what women need when leaving prison life. The book also examines crucial issues facing women prisoners, including sexual abuse and assault, substance abuse, mental and physical health concerns, human rights, violence, discrimination, and the unique problems of women prisoners of color. Topics addressed in Inside and Out: Women, Prison, and Therapy include: designing and delivering gender-responsive programs for women developing therapeutic measures to correct and normalize marginalized women mistreatment of women prisoners in the United States domestic violence and its connection to criminalization counseling sexually abused women motherhood, crime, and prison the effects of incarceration on children and families women, addiction, and incarceration using drama therapy with incarcerated women feminist support groups transitioning after release from prison and much more Inside and Out: Women, Prison, and Therapy is a vital professional resource for therapists and counselors who work with female prisoners and their families.

Questions about gender, justice and crime are constantly in the public arena, whether they focus on young women getting drunk or taking drugs, or the rising numbers of women going to prison or committing violent crimes, or reports of macho behaviour on the part of men in the military, law enforcement or professional sport. This book provides a key text for students seeking to understand feminist and gendered perspectives on criminology and criminal justice, bringing together the most innovative research and work which has taken the study of the relationship between gender and justice into the twenty-first century. The book addresses many of the issues of concern to the established feminist agenda (such as the gender gap, equity in the criminal justice system, penal regimes and their impact on women), but also shows the ways in which these themes have been extended, reinterpreted and answered in new and distinctive ways. Organised into sections on gender and offending behaviour, gender and the criminal justice system, and new concepts and approaches, Gender and Justice: new concepts and approaches will be essential reading for students taking courses in criminology and criminal justice, and anybody else wishing to understand the complex and changing relationship between gender and justice.

Questions about gender, justice and crime are constantly in the public arena, whether they focus on young women getting drunk or taking drugs, or the rising numbers of women going to prison or committing violent crimes, or reports of macho behaviour on the part of men in the military, law enforcement or professional sport. This book provides a key text for students seeking to understand feminist and gendered perspectives on criminology and criminal justice, bringing together the most innovative research and work which has taken the study of the relationship between gender and justice into the twenty-first century. The book addresses many of the issues of concern to the established feminist agenda (such as the gender gap, equity in the criminal justice system, penal regimes and their impact on women), but also shows the ways in which these themes have been extended, reinterpreted and answered in new and distinctive ways. Organised into sections on gender and offending behaviour, gender and the criminal justice system, and new concepts and approaches, Gender and Justice: new concepts and approaches will be essential reading for students taking courses in criminology and criminal justice, and anybody else wishing to understand the complex and changing relationship between gender and justice.

The relationship between ageing and crime has been a much neglected issue, the focus rather being on youth. This books aims to redress this imbalance, bringing together a group of leading authorities to address key issues on the subject of crime and ageing, considering older people as both victims and perpetrators of crime, and looking too at conditions faced by older prisoners. The book draws upon both criminology and gerontology, as well as sociology and social policy, to help understand the complex relationship between ageing and the criminal justice system, and argues that the needs of elders must be far more firmly on the penal policy agenda than is the case currently. Ageing, Crime and Society will be concerned with 'unsilencing' a group who because of their age and status have been muted by the criminal justice system.

The relationship between ageing and crime has been a much neglected issue, the focus rather being on youth. This books aims to redress this imbalance, bringing together a group of leading authorities to address key issues on the subject of crime and ageing, considering older people as both victims and perpetrators of crime, and looking too at conditions faced by older prisoners. The book draws upon both criminology and gerontology, as well as sociology and social policy, to help understand the complex relationship between ageing and the criminal justice system, and argues that the needs of elders must be far more firmly on the penal policy agenda than is the case currently. Ageing, Crime and Society will be concerned with 'unsilencing' a group who because of their age and status have been muted by the criminal justice system.

Videos from the "What Is a Criminal?" lecture series whatisacriminal.org (the inspiration for the book) will remain freely available, and will be described in the book. These can be used by professors as supplemental multimedia content both for in-class and out-of-class assignments. The Editor has provided an instructors' introduction that suggests classroom uses for the individual essays and chapters. Some of the stories are told scholars, some by people working in the justice system, and some by people who were formally incarcerated. It is very rare to find these three groups participating in a common discussion about the core concept that brings them together. The book's narrative-based, multi-voiced form will not only help students think broadly and deeply about this important topic, but also interest them enough to share the stories with their families and friends, generating ideas and discussions that ripple well beyond the classroom.

Prison Readings provides a comprehensive, critical introduction to the main debates and dilemmas associated with prisons and imprisonment, bringing together a selection of the key readings on the subject, along with a comprehensive introduction and commentary written by the editors. The book will be essential reading for practitioners working in this field, and students studying prisons as part of courses in criminology, sociology, law, psychology, and other disciplines. Prison Readings introduces students to the history and development of prisons, contemporary theories and issues relating to prison populations, sociological and psychological literature on the effects of imprisonment, and to debates about the management and privatization of the prison estate and emerging trends.

Prison Readings provides a comprehensive, critical introduction to the main debates and dilemmas associated with prisons and imprisonment, bringing together a selection of the key readings on the subject, along with a comprehensive introduction and commentary written by the editors. The book will be essential reading for practitioners working in this field, and students studying prisons as part of courses in criminology, sociology, law, psychology, and other disciplines. Prison Readings introduces students to the history and development of prisons, contemporary theories and issues relating to prison populations, sociological and psychological literature on the effects of imprisonment, and to debates about the management and privatization of the prison estate and emerging trends.

This book aims to demonstrate how forensic psychology contributes to police investigations, providing practical information about the type of reports provided by psychologists and behavioural advisors, and set within a broader theoretical context. It asks the question 'What do practitioners actually do when they provide advice for the police and the courts and how do they do it?' The contributors to the book are all experts in the field of offender profiling and behavioural investigative advice. The chapters provide valuable insights into particular case details, the ethical and legal consequences of advice, coverage of the relevant theoretical context, explanations for conclusions drawn, practical difficulties in preparing reports, potential pitfalls, and an account of how cases are resolved.

Recent years have witnessed an increase in the attention given to the later stages of criminal careers. Research upon this topic has charted the main factors associated with the termination of criminal careers, outlined some of the possible reasons behind these relationships and started to develop theoretical explanations for such relationships. Collected together for the first time are some of the most important contributions to this field of research. The collection focuses upon the initial explorations into this topic, the most commonly observed findings, the cessation of offending by specific offender-types and theoretical matters. An introductory essay by the editor provides a thorough overview of the work in this area and highlights the reasons why the termination of criminal careers will become increasingly important to criminologists and criminal justice policy makers alike.

Occasionally a book is published that reveals a subculture you never dreamt existed. More rarely, that book goes on to become a phenomenon of its own. The 2004 publication of the "Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia" was such a phenomenon, spawning two further volumes and alerting a fascinated readership worldwide to the extraordinary and hermetic world of Russian criminal tattoos (David Cronenberg, for example, made regular use of the "Encyclopaedia" during the making of his 2007 movie "Eastern Promises"). Now, Fuel has reprinted volume one of this bestselling series, whose first edition already fetches considerable sums online. The photographs, drawings and texts published in this book are part of a collection of more than 3,000 tattoos accumulated over a lifetime by a prison attendant named Danzig Baldaev. Tattoos were his gateway into a secret world in which he acted as ethnographer, recording the rituals of a closed society. The icons and tribal languages he documented are artful, distasteful, sexually explicit and sometimes just strange, reflecting as they do the lives and traditions of Russian convicts. Skulls, swastikas, harems of naked women, a smiling Al Capone, medieval knights in armor, daggers sheathed in blood, benign images of Christ, sweet-faced mothers and their babies, armies of tanks and a horned Lenin: these are the signs by which the people of this hidden world mark and identify themselves. With a foreword by Danzig Baldaev, and an introduction by Alexei Plutser-Sarno, exploring the symbolism of the Russian criminal tattoo.

In his study of children and criminality, criminologist and research analyst Ronald Flowers provides an understanding of the relationship between child victimization and juvenile delinquency as well as a comprehensive review of the literature. Assessing the effectiveness of present conceptual frameworks, modes of research, and social and legal measures, he offers recommendations for furthering professional and research efforts in the field. His analysis blends the findings of leading experts and researchers in a variety of disciplines with relevant FBI and law enforcement data. An additional feature is the "model statute" for the study, prevention, and treatment of child victimization in all of its guises.