For decades, scholars have disagreed about what kinds of behavior count as crime. Is it simply a violation of the criminal law? Is it behavior that causes serious harm? Is the seriousness affected by how many people are harmed and does it make a difference who those people are? Are crimes less criminal if the victims are black, lower class, or foreigners? When corporations victimize workers is that a crime? What about when governments violate basic human rights of their citizens, and who then polices governments? In What Is Crime? the first book-length treatment of the topic, contributors debate the content of crime from diverse perspectives: consensus/moral, cultural/relative, conflict/power, anarchist/critical, feminist, racial/ethnic, postmodernist, and integrational. Henry and Lanier synthesize these perspectives and explore what each means for crime control policy.

View the Table of Contents.
Read the Introduction.

"With a distinguished cast of scholars, this book makes a major contribution to the field in its framing of a very complex social problem."
--Simon I. Singer, author of "Recriminalizing Delinquency: Violent Juvenile Crime and Juvenile Justice Reform"

"The most comprehensive treatment to date of the relationship between race, ethnicity, and crime. This collection will be valuable to practitioners and criminological theorists alike because it contains vast amounts of data on the topic, then orders and interprets these data with a strong socio-historical lens, enhanced by a comparative perspective."
--Troy Duster, author of Backdoor to Eugenics

"Shines a new, critical light on race, ethnicity, crime and justice. The text pushes us to consider how these terms are defined, what's missing from our conventional analyses and ultimately why and how race matters in discussions of justice."
--Katheryn Russell-Brown, author of "The Color of Crime: Racial Hoaxes, White Fear, Black Protectionism, Police Harassment, and Other Macroaggressions"

"The editors have assembled a stellar group of scholars and researchers and what one discovers in these chapters is innovative conceptualization, and creative research using mixed methods. The problem of race/ethnicity, crime, and justice looms large in America and this collection is a must read for those seeking a better understanding of the latest research in this critical area of inquiry and the many unanswered questions that future research must address."
--John H. Laub, co-author of "Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives: Delinquent Boys to Age 70"

In this authoritative volume, race and ethnicity are themselves considered as central organizing principles in why, how, where and by whom crimes are committed and enforced. The contributors argue that dimensions of race and ethnicity condition the very laws that make certain behaviors criminal, the perception of crime and those who are criminalized, the determination of who becomes a victim of crime under which circumstances, the responses to laws and crime that make some more likely to be defined as criminal, and the ways that individuals and communities are positioned and empowered to respond to crime.

Contributors: Eric Baumer, Lydia Bean, Robert D. Crutchfield, Stacy De Coster, Kevin Drakulich, Jeffrey Fagan, John Hagan, Karen Heimer, Jan Holland, Diana Karafin, Lauren J. Krivo, Charis E. Kubrin, Gary LaFree, Toya Z. Like, Ramiro Martinez, Jr., Ross L. Matsueda, Jody Miller, Amie L. Nielsen, Robert O'Brien, Ruth D. Peterson, Alex R. Piquero, Doris Marie Provine, Nancy Rodriguez, Wenona Rymond-Richmond, Robert J. Sampson, Carla Shedd, Elizabeth Trejos-Castillo, Avelardo Valdez, Alexander T. Vazsonyi, MarA-a B. VA(c)lez, Geoff K. Ward, Valerie West, Vernetta Young, Marjorie S. Zatz.

From the torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib to unnecessary military attacks on civilians, this book is an account of the violations of international criminal law committed during the United States invasion of Iraq. Taking stock of the entire war, it uniquely documents the overestimation of the successes and underestimation of the failings of the Surge and Awakening policies. The authors show how an initial cynical framing of the American war led to the creation of a new Shia-dominated Iraq state, which in turn provoked powerful feelings of legal cynicism among Iraqis, especially the Sunni. The predictable result was a resilient Sunni insurgency that re-emerged in the violent aftermath of the 2011 withdrawal. Examining more than a decade of evidence, this book makes a powerful case that the American war in Iraq constituted a criminal war of aggression.

In 2004, the State Department gathered more than a thousand interviews from refugees in Chad that verified Colin Powell's U.N. and congressional testimonies about the Darfur genocide. The survey cost nearly a million dollars to conduct and yet it languished in the archives as the killing continued, claiming hundreds of thousands of murder and rape victims and restricting several million survivors to camps. This book for the first time fully examines that survey and its heartbreaking accounts. It documents the Sudanese government's enlistment of Arab Janjaweed militias in destroying black African communities. The central questions are: Why is the United States so ambivalent to genocide? Why do so many scholars deemphasize racial aspects of genocide? How can the science of criminology advance understanding and protection against genocide? This book gives a vivid firsthand account and voice to the survivors of genocide in Darfur.

This field study features intensive personal interviews of more than four hundred young people who have left home and school and are living on the streets of Toronto and Vancouver. The study examines why youth take to the streets, their struggles to survive there, their victimization and involvement in crime, their associations with other street youth, especially within "street families," their contacts with the police, and their efforts to rejoin conventional society. Major theories of youth crime are analyzed and reappraised in the context of a new social capital theory of crime.

A searing examination of the long history of police misconduct and political corruption in Chicago that produced the city's current racial reckoning Chicago faces a racial reckoning. For over 50 years, Chicago Mayors Richard J. and Richard M. Daley were at the helm of a law-and-order dynasty that disadvantaged predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods and covered up heinous crimes against Black men. During his 1980-2012 tenure as State's Attorney and Mayor, Richard M. Daley (son of Richard J. Daley) led a law enforcement bureaucracy which permitted police detective John Burge to supervise the torture of over 100 Black men on Chicago's South and West Sides. Misguided policies on "gangs, guns, and drugs," support for a racialized code of silence and police misconduct, and a lack of meaningful punishment, have ensured that these leaders' effects on Chicago are still sorely felt. In this book, John Hagan, Bill McCarthy, and Daniel Herda confront the complicated history of race, politics, and policing in Chicago to explain how crime works from the top-down through urban political machines and the elite figures who dominate them. The authors argue that the Daleys' law enforcement system worked largely to benefit and protect White residential areas and business districts while excluding Black and Brown Chicagoans and concentrating them in highly segregated neighborhoods. The stark contradiction between the promise "to serve and protect" and the realities of hyper-segregation and mass incarceration created widespread cynicism about policing that remains one of the most persistent problems of contemporary Chicago law enforcement. By holding a sociological lens up to the history of this quintessential American city, Chicago's Reckoning reveals new insights into the politics of crime and how, until we come to terms with our history and the racial and economic divisions it created, these dynamics will continue to shape our national life.

How did the United States go from being a country that tries to rehabilitate street criminals and prevent white-collar crime to one that harshly punishes common lawbreakers while at the same time encouraging corporate crime through a massive deregulation of business? Why do street criminals get stiff prison sentences, a practice that has led to the disaster of mass incarceration, while white-collar criminals, who arguably harm more people, get slaps on the wrist--if they are prosecuted at all? In "Who Are the Criminals?," one of America's leading criminologists provides new answers to these vitally important questions by telling how the politicization of crime in the twentieth century transformed and distorted crime policymaking and led Americans to fear street crime too much and corporate crime too little.

John Hagan argues that the recent history of American criminal justice can be divided into two eras--the age of Roosevelt (roughly 1933 to 1973) and the age of Reagan (1974 to 2008). A focus on rehabilitation, corporate regulation, and the social roots of crime in the earlier period was dramatically reversed in the later era. In the age of Reagan, the focus shifted to the harsh treatment of street crimes, especially drug offenses, which disproportionately affected minorities and the poor and resulted in wholesale imprisonment. At the same time, a massive deregulation of business provided new opportunities, incentives, and even rationalizations for white-collar crime--and helped cause the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession.

The time for moving beyond Reagan-era crime policies is long overdue, Hagan argues. The understanding of crime must be reshaped and we must reconsider the relative harms and punishments of street and corporate crimes. In a new afterword, Hagan assesses Obama's policies regarding the punishment of white-collar and street crimes and debates whether there is any evidence of a significant change in the way our country punishes them.

From the torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib to unnecessary military attacks on civilians, this book is an account of the violations of international criminal law committed during the United States invasion of Iraq. Taking stock of the entire war, it uniquely documents the overestimation of the successes and underestimation of the failings of the Surge and Awakening policies. The authors show how an initial cynical framing of the American war led to the creation of a new Shia-dominated Iraq state, which in turn provoked powerful feelings of legal cynicism among Iraqis, especially the Sunni. The predictable result was a resilient Sunni insurgency that re-emerged in the violent aftermath of the 2011 withdrawal. Examining more than a decade of evidence, this book makes a powerful case that the American war in Iraq constituted a criminal war of aggression.

These essays examine how and why inequality affects the patterning of crime and criminal justice. They evaluate the merits of various theoretical ideas, debates, and controversies regarding crime and inequality; document the dynamics of inequality in varied crime settings; examine methodologies used in exploring the crime-inequality relationship; and set forth new research and policy agendas for future work.

For the first time in legal history, an indictment was filed against an acting head of state, Slobodan Milosevic, for crimes that he allegedly committed while in office. Seeking to change the concept of ethnic cleansing from a rationalizing euphemism to an incriminating metaphor, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) established precedents and expanded the boundaries of international criminal and humanitarian law.
In Reclaiming Justice: The International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and Local Courts, Sanja Kutnjak Ivkovich and John Hagan expand on prior literature about the ICTY by providing a comprehensive view of how people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, and Serbia view and evaluate the ICTY. Kutnjak Ivkovich and Hagan raise crucial questions about international justice in a systematic and comprehensive manner, focusing on the ICTY's legality and judicial independence, as well as specific issues of substantive and procedural justice and collective and individual responsibility. They provide an in-depth analysis of perceptions about the ICTY and the subsequent work and decisions reached by its local courts. In addition, they examine the relationship between the views of the ICTY and ethnicity as the war was fought largely along ethnic lines.

In 2004, the State Department gathered more than a thousand interviews from refugees in Chad that verified Colin Powell s U.N. and congressional testimonies about the Darfur genocide. The survey cost nearly a million dollars to conduct and yet it languished in the archives as the killing continued, claiming hundreds of thousands of murder and rape victims and restricting several million survivors to camps. This book for the first time fully examines that survey and its heartbreaking accounts. It documents the Sudanese government s enlistment of Arab Janjaweed militias in destroying black African communities. The central questions are: Why is the United States so ambivalent to genocide? Why do so many scholars deemphasize racial aspects of genocide? How can the science of criminology advance understanding and protection against genocide? This book gives a vivid firsthand account and voice to the survivors of genocide in Darfur.

This field study features intensive personal interviews of more than four hundred young people who have left home and school and are living on the streets of Toronto and Vancouver. The study examines why youth take to the streets, their struggles to survive there, their victimization and involvement in crime, their associations with other street youth, especially within "street families," their contacts with the police, and their efforts to rejoin conventional society. Major theories of youth crime are analyzed and reappraised in the context of a new social capital theory of crime.

View the Table of Contents.
Read the Introduction.

"With a distinguished cast of scholars, this book makes a major contribution to the field in its framing of a very complex social problem."
--Simon I. Singer, author of "Recriminalizing Delinquency: Violent Juvenile Crime and Juvenile Justice Reform"

"The most comprehensive treatment to date of the relationship between race, ethnicity, and crime. This collection will be valuable to practitioners and criminological theorists alike because it contains vast amounts of data on the topic, then orders and interprets these data with a strong socio-historical lens, enhanced by a comparative perspective."
--Troy Duster, author of Backdoor to Eugenics

"Shines a new, critical light on race, ethnicity, crime and justice. The text pushes us to consider how these terms are defined, what's missing from our conventional analyses and ultimately why and how race matters in discussions of justice."
--Katheryn Russell-Brown, author of "The Color of Crime: Racial Hoaxes, White Fear, Black Protectionism, Police Harassment, and Other Macroaggressions"

"The editors have assembled a stellar group of scholars and researchers and what one discovers in these chapters is innovative conceptualization, and creative research using mixed methods. The problem of race/ethnicity, crime, and justice looms large in America and this collection is a must read for those seeking a better understanding of the latest research in this critical area of inquiry and the many unanswered questions that future research must address."
--John H. Laub, co-author of "Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives: Delinquent Boys to Age 70"

In this authoritative volume, race and ethnicity are themselves considered as central organizing principles in why, how, where and by whom crimes are committed and enforced. The contributors argue that dimensions of race and ethnicity condition the very laws that make certain behaviors criminal, the perception of crime and those who are criminalized, the determination of who becomes a victim of crime under which circumstances, the responses to laws and crime that make some more likely to be defined as criminal, and the ways that individuals and communities are positioned and empowered to respond to crime.

Contributors: Eric Baumer, Lydia Bean, Robert D. Crutchfield, Stacy De Coster, Kevin Drakulich, Jeffrey Fagan, John Hagan, Karen Heimer, Jan Holland, Diana Karafin, Lauren J. Krivo, Charis E. Kubrin, Gary LaFree, Toya Z. Like, Ramiro Martinez, Jr., Ross L. Matsueda, Jody Miller, Amie L. Nielsen, Robert O'Brien, Ruth D. Peterson, Alex R. Piquero, Doris Marie Provine, Nancy Rodriguez, Wenona Rymond-Richmond, Robert J. Sampson, Carla Shedd, Elizabeth Trejos-Castillo, Avelardo Valdez, Alexander T. Vazsonyi, MarA-a B. VA(c)lez, Geoff K. Ward, Valerie West, Vernetta Young, Marjorie S. Zatz.

In the last thirty years, the number of lawyers in the United States and Canada has more than tripled, and today as many women as men are entering legal practice. The sudden, dramatic increase of women in the profession would seem to signify a new era of equality in the legal profession. However, stereotypes about women's abilities to balance responsibilities at work and home hamper their upward mobility in this male-dominated field. Battling sexual discrimination, women in law grapple with long-held assumptions about parenting, inferring that women eventually abandon their careers in order to take care of home and children. A large percentage of women leave the profession dissatisfied and distressed or seek part-time solutions, and those women who do stay in practice often find there is a ceiling on their status and monetary compensation.
Gender in Practice demonstrates and explains how the structure of legal practice has changed in recent decades, often to the disadvantage of women. The issues addressed here, such as conflicts between careers and family, departures from practice, and barriers to women's promotions and earnings are of great importance to members of the profession. Looking at the careers of both men and women and using information culled from two surveys that include nearly two thousand lawyers, this revealing book traces occupational and personal experiences and analyzes these patterns in terms of work and gender. The findings are linked to practical proposals for change, some of which have already found a place in the profession.
A major contribution to discussions of sexual equality in the legal workplace, Gender in Practice offers detailed insights into the current and future status of women in the law. Lawyers, law professors, and anyone concerned with gender inequality and equal rights will find this to be an interesting and informative work.

These essays examine how and why inequality affects the patterning of crime and criminal justice. They evaluate the merits of various theoretical ideas, debates, and controversies regarding crime and inequality; document the dynamics of inequality in varied crime settings; examine methodologies used in exploring the crime-inequality relationship; and set forth new research and policy agendas for future work.

Called a fig leaf for inaction by many at its inception, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has surprised its critics by growing from an unfunded U.N. Security Council resolution to an institution with more than 1,000 employees and a $100 million annual budget. With Slobodan Milosevic now on trial and more than forty fellow indictees currently detained, the success of the Hague tribunal has forced many to reconsider the prospects of international justice. John Hagan's Justice in the Balkans is a powerful firsthand look at the inner workings of the tribunal as it has moved from an experimental organization initially viewed as irrelevant to the first truly effective international court since Nuremberg. Creating an institution that transcends national borders is a challenge fraught with political and organizational difficulties, yet, as Hagan describes here, the Hague tribunal has increasingly met these difficulties head-on and overcome them. The chief reason for its success, he argues, is the people who have shaped it, particularly its charismatic chief prosecutor, Louise Arbour. With drama and immediacy, Justice in the Balkans re-creates how Arbour worked with others to turn the tribunal's fortunes around, reversing its initial failure to arrest and convict significant figures and advancing the tribunal's agenda to the point at which Arbour and her colleagues, including her successor, Carla Del Ponte (nicknamed the Bulldog), were able to indict Milosevic himself. Leading readers through the investigations and criminal proceedings of the tribunal, Hagan offers the most original account of the foundation and maturity of the institution. Justice in the Balkans brilliantly shows how an international social movement for human rights in the Balkans was transformed into a pathbreaking legal institution and a new transnational legal field. The Hague tribunal becomes, in Hagan's work, a stellar example of how individuals working with collective purpose can make a profound difference. The Hague tribunal reaches into only one house of horrors among many; but, within the wisely precise remit given to it, it has beamed the light of justice into the darkness of man's inhumanity, to woman as well as to man.--The Times (London)

In 1973, sixty-one days after the Paris Peace Accords was signed specifying that American troops must withdraw from Vietnam-one day beyond the terms of the agreement-Richard Pena, was among the final handful of Americans to leave the country. LAST PLANE OUT OF SAIGON is a faithful reproduction of the journal he kept as a draftee working in the operating room of Vietnam's largest military hospital during the final year of the war. Supporting historical and political context is provided by award-winning scholar, John Hagan. Richard's entries were written in real time and, as they chronicle the last desperate year of this tragic war, present readers with a better understanding of the complicated final year of the Vietnam War from the inside, looking out. A year that tragically remains unfamiliar to most Americans. This landmark book describes, in part, the hasty departure of American troops from Vietnam but is timely now as America again withdraws from war and is challenged with multiple global conflicts. It is a gripping real-time account of the anger, resistance and resilience forged in one man by the horrors of Vietnam witnessed up close, in graphically human terms, touching on mistakes that were made then and which our country continues to make today. The reader will feel the weight of this compelling account, as the Vietnam War continues to plague the consciousness of our country. All Americans should read this important piece of history, bound to leave them with chills. Richard Pena served in Vietnam as an Operating Room Specialist for the United States Army and left on the last day of American withdrawal. He is now a nationally renowned practicing attorney in Austin, Texas. He is a former President of the American Bar Foundation and State Bar of Texas and served on the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association. John Hagan is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and Law at Northwestern University and Co-Director of the Center of Law & Globalization at the American Bar Foundation in Chicago. He has published nine books and more than 150 articles in nationally renowned magazines and journals.

"The Essene Diet" outlines a behavior-based weight-loss program based on a pilot study run by the author, a medical physician. A serious science book as well, popular nutrition myths are explored and debunked concerning obesity, food addiction, breakfast, and fasting. In several chapters written at a medical school level, the reader learns the basics of biochemistry, metabolics, and digestion. The message in "The Essene Diet" is a simple one: if one understands how the brain and body works, the pathway to weight loss is clear-with no need for pills, food diets, or intensive exercise programs. Kindle version available under the title "Breakfast: The Least Important Meal of the Day."

"John Hagan was born to tell stories. A Long Farewell is ample evidence. He creates the vivid word pictures of a consummate storyteller. He is a master of Midwest mid-twentieth century dialogue. If you seek to appreciate the era of Dwight David Eisenhower and Jean Paul Sartre in a new light, A Long Farewell is a must-read." -Robert J. Deger, Ph.D. Associate Professor of History and Political Science Gateway Community and Technical College "Every educator will laugh, cry, and understand; be perplexed by and relate to A Long Farewell. It touched me to my very core. ...] I think it was because of my love for and commitment to education. John Hagan captures the very heart of educators for whom those wonderful break-through moments evoke] the tears and fears we have all experienced. I pulled A Long Farewell from the shelf and read the last few pages again. I did not want to put the book down ...] because I know..." -C. Daniel Raisch, Ph.D. Associate Dean, Education and Allied Professions The University of Dayton " A Long Farewell is] reminiscent of my own childhood experiences growing up in Ohio. ...] The last story caught me completely by surprise, and I simply couldn't put the book down until I finished it. The book has mystery, intrigue, and humor. Thanks, John Hagan, for some easy and relaxing hours." -Kathleen Smith A Grosse Point Woods, Michigan Reader

"Year of the Passover" ranges far and wide across the brutal landscape of the eastern Roman Empire of 2,000 years ago, searching for clues in determining the year of the Passover of Jesus' crucifixion. A central character in the crucifixion is discovered to be Syrian General Lucius Vitellius, who was in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover preparing for war with Arabia. Hagan's work also stands alone as a valuable resource on Jewish and Roman history. Herod the Great and his powerful descendents are studied, along with Emperor Tiberius and other famous Romans of the era. Herodias, the Queen of the Galilee and granddaughter of Herod the Great, is profiled in detail. One of the most controversial and consequential women of her time, Herodias remains a cult figure to this day. The secretive Jewish sect of the Essenes is also investigated. Not only did Jesus take much of his philosophy from the Essenes, but Josephus argues that, centuries earlier, the Essenes inspired the Greek mystic Pythagoras. "Year of the Passover" is a must read for anyone with an interest in early Christian history. Soft revision March 2013.

"Fires of Rome" is the companion work to "Year of the Passover" and covers the early Christian era from the crucifixion of Jesus in A.D. 36 to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and beyond to the end of the revolt in A.D. 73. New Testament accounts of the crucifixion and early Christian events are examined against secular history written by accepted ancient Roman historians. "Fires of Rome" makes the case for a conspiracy against the Christians by the Jerusalem Second Temple High Priesthood which ultimately led to the persecutions in Rome, outwardly incited by Emperor Nero in A.D. 64. Earlier, in A.D. 62, the Jewish priests were responsible for the elimination of the Jerusalem Christian leadership, including James the Just, the brother of Jesus. Of necessity, "Fires of Rome" delves deeply into Roman history, with chapters on Roman Emperors Caius (Caligula), Claudius, and Nero, as well as chapters on the Jewish revolt of A.D. 66-73. "Fires of Rome" also profiles the powerful women of the early Christian era, including the infamous Herodias, Jewish Queen Bernice and her sister Drusilla, Agrippina the Younger, and others. Empress Poppea Sabina, the wife of Nero, is especially interesting, with her eclectic and semi-secret court of mystics, philosophers, and religious figures-which included historian Flavius Josephus and former Jerusalem Second Temple High Priest Ismael. Fires of Rome is a must read for every serious student of Christian history. Soft revision March 2013.