Cambridge University Press The Explanation of Crime: Context, Mechanisms and Development (Pathways in Crime)

Integration of disciplines, theories and research orientations has assumed a central role in criminological discourse yet it remains difficult to identify any concrete discoveries or significant breakthroughs for which integration has been responsible. Concentrating on three key concepts: context, mechanisms, and development, this volume aims to advance integrated scientific knowledge on crime causation by bringing together different scholarly approaches. Through an analysis of the roles of behavioural contexts and individual differences in crime causation, The Explanation of Crime seeks to provide a unified and focused approach to the integration of knowledge. Chapter topics range from individual genetics to family environments and from ecological behaviour settings to the macro-level context of communities and social systems. This is a comprehensive treatment of the problem of crime causation that will appeal to graduate students and researchers in criminology and be of great interest to policy-makers and practitioners in crime policy and prevention. Review 'This is a terrific book. With its focus on different situational mechanisms linking social contexts to individual actions, it will appeal not only to criminologists but also to sociologists and other social scientists interested in explaining why individuals do what they do.' Peter Hedström, Nuffield College, Oxford'The essays in this volume are amongst the most stimulating and original collections so far published, focusing explicitly on the theoretical foundations of developmental criminology. They take the analyses way beyond risk factors and a preoccupation with statistical sophistication to address the core questions of the processes through which human beings across the lifecourse shape and are shaped by their environments, and how individual factors and social contexts at multiple levels can be theorized simultaneously. In short, the authors provide a range of powerful new tools for thinking creatively about pathways into and out of crime.' Ross Homel, Foundation Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University, Australia'This first volume in the 'Pathways in Crime' series is a very timely book. It will definitely enhance scholarly debate in international criminology and significantly add to progress in empirical research on the complex dynamics of crime causation and control. By means of addressing an integrating/integrative approach with three key concepts: 'context', 'mechanisms', and 'development', Per-Olof H. Wikström and Robert J. Sampson as editors and authors, together with the other internationally highly renowned authors, have been extremely successful in delineating a unified scholarly perspective of the dynamic interplay of behavioural contexts and individual differences in crime causation. This will also considerably influence practitioners and policy-makers in the field of community crime prevention.' Hans-J. Kerner, Director of the Institut für Kriminologie, Universität Tübingen'In the last 25 years, the idea of 'integration' in criminology has been bandied about as the wave of the future of the field, but nowhere has this concept been embraced with such vigour or commitment as displayed in The Explanation of Crime: Context, Mechanisms, and Development edited by Per-Olof H. Wikström and Robert J. Sampson. Assembling a stellar group of first-rate scholars representing a wide range of disciplinary interests, this volume is organized around three of the most important concepts in the understanding of crime – social context, mechanisms (processes), and individual development. A variety of fundamental topics including models of scientific explanation, the role of community context, situational mechanisms, behavioural genetics and environmental contributions, developmental risk and serious delinquency, self-control and social control, and desistance from crime are covered here and each in a provocative