Nathan G. Jennings's captivating study explores the ascetical logic of the various practices that Christians call theology. By establishing ascetic practice as coherent within the logic of Christian thought, Jennings argues that Christian theology itself, as an embodied Christian practice, is a type of and participant in Christian asceticism. Jennings establishes that the implications of such an understanding of Christian theology can be brought to bear on modern Christian scholarship in profound and transformative ways. With engagements and references that span a vast terrain from Patristic authors to modern systematic theologians, Theology as Ascetic Act: Disciplining Christian Discourse is a significant contribution to both modern Christian thought and the study of asceticism.

This second edition book advances knowledge about criminal careers throughout life. It presents new results from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (CSDD), which is a unique longitudinal study of the development of offending from age 10 to age 61. Previous results obtained in the CSDD are reviewed, and then new findings from official criminal records up to age 61 are presented: on offending at different ages, continuity in offending, ages of onset, and criminal career duration. The number of offenders and offenses between ages 50 and 61 is noteworthy. The book then presents results on self-reported offending in different age ranges up to 48: on prevalence, frequency, continuity, and comparisons with official records that suggest that official records only capture the tip of the iceberg of offending. It then analyzes different trajectories of official offending up to age 61 and shows to what extent they could be predicted by childhood risk factors. New results from the CSDD in the last 10 years are then presented, followed by a discussion of the relevance of all the findings for criminological theories and public policies such as early intervention. This book should be of great interest not only to academics but also to policy makers and practitioners who are concerned with crime.   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .  

This Brief examines criminal careers by providing the most extensive and comprehensive investigation to date on the official offending, self-reported offending, and trajectories of offending of the Pittsburgh Youth Study (PYS) participants. The PYS is a longitudinal study, which was initiated in 1987, and involves repeated follow-ups on several community cohorts (starting in grades 1, 4, and 7) of inner-city boys in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This Brief covers the Youngest and Oldest PYS cohorts (which had the most follow-up and most data available) from ages 10-30. It provides the most complete descriptive analyses of the criminal careers of these males to date. The three cohorts are commonly referred to as the Youngest, Middle, and Oldest cohorts, respectively. Consistent with several prior publications with the PYS data (Loeber et al., 2008), this book focuses only on data from the Youngest and Oldest cohorts as these cohorts were followed up the most frequently and have the longest time window of data available. It will be of interest to researchers in Criminology and Criminal Justice, as well as related fields like Sociology, Developmental Psychology, Social Policy, and Education.

Reading is a many-faceted subject. A book on the topic may, like many, be a description of the physiological steps one takes in performing the process called reading. More commonly, it is a manual, describing the methods a teacher may use in teaching schoolage children to acquire the mechanical aspects of reading. Some, far fewer, are focused on the psychology of reading, such psychology usually emphasing the conscious and logical approaches to learning. Still others are directed toward some particular part of reading in its socio-historical setting, as for example, freedom to read, or adult reading habits, or variation in trends in the produc tion of materials. All books of such nature are relevant to the omnibus topic-reading. A book which would include reading in its historical, sociological, and educational setting would indeed be a major undertaking, de manding both scope and depth of knowledge from its author. Frank Jennings has written such an inclusive book, and he appro priately calls it This Is Reading.

This brief uses California's CURES (Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System) 2.0 data to analyze county-level opioid prescribing rates in California from 2012 to 2017 from multiple perspectives. The book summarizes California's county-level opioid prescribing trends, examines potential correlates of opioid prescribing rates, and assesses the association of opioid prescribing on both criminal justice and public health outcomes. Finally, the authors discuss their principal findings and the implications for policy and practice, including the significant and lasting consequences of the opioid crisis on the criminal justice system and the importance of a multi-disciplinary approach to effectively address the crisis.

This Brief fills a gap in criminological literature, as there are few empirically-based studies on delinquency of adolescent girls. It provides results of a longitudinal study, The Pittsburgh Girls Study (PGS), which includes 2,451 girls, followed annually from age 10-19, the ages when criminal behavior tends to emerge. This study provides the most extensive and comprehensive investigation into the criminal offending and self-reported trajectories of offending of PGS participants, along with an in-depth examination of other criminal career dimensions. In five chapters, this short volume reviews the limited extent of girls' delinquency literature, presents data on girls' offending patterns (onset, persistence, specialization, and desistence), provides insights on gender differences by comparison with the Pittsburgh Youth Study, which focused on male offenders, and explores the theoretical and practical implications of the results. By understanding the origins and onset of criminal behavior in girls, researchers can begin to understand effective interventions and crime prevention. This Brief will be of interest to researchers in criminology and criminal justice, as well as related fields such as sociology, public policy, and psychology.

Written with clarity and humour, the book provides a vivid description of the author's rich childhood experiences in West Kingston. He draws on his recollections from home, school, church and community at large; as well as from the seminal influences of politics, religion, music and sports. A book for all ages, it recalls many of the incidents which made early life memorable for young people during the 1950s and 1960s. It represents an important contribution to the preservation of Jamaica's traditions and heritage, and will stir thoughts and memories, and evoke nostalgia.