This three-volume set is the definitive reference tool for criminology and criminal justice students, researchers and practitioners worldwide. John Muncie presents a comprehensive collection of classic and contemporary pieces that define the study of crime. Each volume includes an introduction by the editor, to contextualize the historical, theoretical and empirical significance of the articles contained therein.



Volume 1: The Meaning of Crime: Definition, representation and social construction





This volume introduces key issues in the definition of `crime', examining legal, historical, moral and social constructions of crime.





Volume 2: The Causes of Crime





Explanations of crime are various, diverse and contradictory. This volume brings together some of the major criminological paradigms (biological, psychological and sociological) which have attempted to locate the causes of crime.





Volume 3: Radical and Critical Criminologies





This volume introduces how radical, feminist and critical schools of criminology started to address the issue not of why offending occurred, but of how particular images of crime were constructed and maintained.





Collectively, the volumes provide ready access to the key debates about and disputes within the academic study of crime as they have emerged over the past 120 years.