Realist Criminology [Paperback]

This book challenges contemporary criminological thinking, providing a thorough critique of mainstream criminology, including both liberal criminology and administrative criminology. It sets a new agenda for theoretical and practical engagement, and for creating a more effective and just criminal justice system.Author Preface 1. The Successes and Failures of Modern Criminology 2. A Framework of Analysis 3. The Problem of Method 4. Rational Choice, Routine Activities and Situational Crime Prevention 5. From Cultural Criminology to Cultural Realism 6. The Myth of Punitiveness Revisited 7. Governing the Present Epilogue: For a Public Criminology

Roger Matthews, a pioneer of realist criminology, is one of the most interesting and important criminological theorists in Britain today. In this exciting new work, he sets out the stall for critical realism - a sophisticated appraisal of and provocative challenge to mainstream criminology. It is just the stimulus to fresh debate that the discipline needs. Realist Criminology is essential reading for all serious students and scholars of criminology. - Lucia Zedner, University of Oxford, UK

In this timely and wide-ranging book, one of realist criminology's most respected pioneers argues forcefully for a criminology that is honest, engaged, and socially responsible a criminology that both takes the human toll of crime seriously and supports interventions that advance public safety, human emancipation and social justice. This is a vision that should help to shape debates about the tools and aims of the study of crime for many years to come. - Elliott Currie, University of California, Irvine, USA

We can learn from critical criminology as we sustain a commitment to working on a realist construction site. This means taking crime seriously, struggling for crime prevention through creating a more just society. In this book, Roger Matthews re-joins that tradition in a way that is contempolóŸ