This book challenges many of the claims made by law enforcement and the media regarding the nature and extent of the gang problem in the United States. Employing a social constructionist approach to the study of social problems, the authors detail how law enforcement has figured prominently in the creation and promotion of stereotypes—marketing the gang threat via the news media to protect and increase organizational resources and power. A rich historical context traces street gangs form their emergence in urban centers in the 19th century, to the western outlaw gangs of the post-Civil War period, to contemporary gangs. Other chapters cover conditions, social problems, and moral panics; the police, crime control, and gangs; crime, gangs, and the news media; the gang panic in Nevada; gangs in the legislature; prosecuting gangs; and panic at the national level. For citizens interested in social problems and public policy.

Panic: The Social Construction of the Street Gang Problem

Politics & Social Sciences

Miethe, Terance D.

McCorkle, Richard C.

Social Sciences

Pearson College Div

The third edition of this thought-provoking text addresses the following questions about crime: * Who are the offenders and victims? * What are the major motivators of crime? * Are most offenders specialists or generalists? * Are most offenders planners or opportunists? * What are their criminal histories? * How often are co-offenders involved? * What are the common features of dangerous places, times, and situational dynamics? * How effective are current crime prevention strategies? Crime Profiles provides a descriptive summary of seven major forms of crime: homicide and aggravated assault, sexual assault, robbery, burglary, motor vehicle theft, occupational and organizational crime, and public order crimes. The new edition provides an extensive update of the material in each chapter. Each chapter now includes national crime reports and national victimization surveys for 2003, the most recently available data. A new chapter has been added on theories of crime. New examples are also used to illustrate both change and stability in the type of situations in which particular crimes occur. Each chapter focuses on crime definitions, trends in their occurrence, the offender and victim profiles, situational elements and circumstances, particular subsets of crime syndromes, prevention, and intervention strategies.

Crime Profiles: The Anatomy of Dangerous Persons, Places, and Situations

Listwan, Shelley J.

Oxford University Press

Simple Statistics provides a concise and compelling introduction to basic statistics for students of criminology and criminal justice. Written in a conversational tone, it does not "dumb down" the material; instead, it demonstrates the value of statistical thinking and reasoning in context. The text covers essential techniques instead of attempting to provide an encyclopedic sweep of all statistical procedures. Author Terance D. Miethe illustrates how verbal statements and other types of information are converted into statistical codes, measures, and variables. While most statistics texts emphasize how to do statistical procedures, they often neglect to explain why we do them. This unique book covers both areas, and the problems at the end of each chapter focus on applications, offering even more context for "why we do" these procedures. Simple Statistics uses hand computation methods to demonstrate how to apply the various statistical procedures, and most chapters include an optional section on how to do these procedures in SPSS and/or Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Helpful examples illustrate each statistical procedure, and specific problems, detailed summaries, key terms, and major formulas are provided at the end of each chapter to further highlight major points. A comprehensive Instructor's Manual is also available.

Simple Statistics: Applications in Criminology and Criminal Justice

The efficient use of statistics can transform excellent research into dynamic, persuasive scholarship. To demystify the process of calculating data, Simple Statistics: Applications in Social Research provides a concise introduction to basic social statistics. In this innovative text, authors Terance D. Miethe and Jane Florence Gauthier illustrate how verbal statements and other types of material are converted into statistical codes, measures, and variables. To give students a sense of the "big picture," they clearly explain the relationship between research and statistics. Moreover, they focus on essential techniques rather than attempting to provide an intimidating, encyclopedic sweep of statistical procedures. Written in a conversational tone, this invaluable resource does not talk down to students; instead, the authors clearly demonstrate the value of statistical thinking and reasoning in specific contexts. While most statistics texts focus primarily on how to do statistical procedures, they neglect to explain why we do them. This unique book covers both the how and why of statistics, preparing students to be better-informed, conscientious researchers. At the end of each chapter, a set of problems provides a rich context for social inquiry, challenging students to directly apply--and think critically--about what they've learned. Throughout, the authors use hand computation methods to demonstrate how to apply various statistical procedures, and each procedure is illustrated by several helpful examples. In addition, each book is packaged with a user-friendly CD-ROM, which provides a step-by-step guide to using SPSS to perform the analyses described in the text. Detailed summaries, lists of key terms, and major formulas are included at the end of each chapter, and a comprehensive Instructor's Manual is also available. A lively introduction to a complex subject, Simple Statistics is a vital resource for understanding the fascinating world of social statistics.

Simple Statistics: Applications in Social Research

Gauthier, Jane Florence

By all accounts, China is the world leader in the number of legal executions. Its long historical use of capital punishment and its major political and economic changes over time are social facts that make China an ideal context for a case study of the death penalty in law and practice. This book examines the death penalty within the changing socio-political context of China. The authors'treatment of China' death penalty is legal, historical, and comparative. In particular, they examine; <ul>
<li>the substantive and procedures laws surrounding capital punishment in different historical periods</li> <li>the purposes and functions of capital punishment in China in various dynasties</li> <li>changes in the method of imposition and relative prevalence of capital punishment over time</li> <li>the socio-demographic profile of the executed and their crimes over the last two decades and comparative practices in other countries. </li>
</ul>
Their analyses of the death penalty in contemporary China focus on both its theory - how it should be done in law - and actual practice - based on available secondary reports/sources.

China's Death Penalty: History, Law and Contemporary Practices (Routledge Advances in Criminology)

Lu, Hong

History

Routledge

Rethinking Homicide: Exploring the Structure and Process Underlying Deadly Situations (Cambridge Studies in Criminology)

Using multiple data sources and methods, this book presents a micro-historical analysis of the nature of change and stability in homicidal situations over time. With a focus on the homicidal situation as the unit of analysis, it explores similarities and differences in the context of homicide for different social groups. Analysis of over 400,000 U.S. homicides is supplemented by qualitative analysis of narrative accounts of homicide events to more fully investigate their structure. Findings of homicidal situations across different time periods and social groups are then considered regarding their implications for criminological theory and public policy.

Regoeczi, Wendy C.

Cambridge University Press

Punishment: A Comparative Historical Perspective

This book identifies and examines the sources of similarities and differences in types of economic punishments, incapacitation devices and structures, and lethal and non-lethal forms of corporal punishment over time and place. The authors survey punishment responses to crime and deviance across different regions of the world and in specific countries like the United States, China, and Saudi Arabia.

In the context of global efforts to control the production, distribution and use of narcotic drugs, China's treatment of the problem provides an important means of understanding the social, political, and economic limits of national and international policies to regulate drug practices. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, China was known for its national addiction to opium, but its drug-eradication campaigns from the 1950s to the 1970s achieved unprecedented success that ultimately transformed China into a "drug-free" society. However, since the economic reforms and open-door policy of the late twentieth century, China is now facing a re-emergence of the production, use and trafficking of narcotic drugs. Employing case studies and a comparative historical approach, and drawing on a variety of data sources including historical records, official crime data only recently made available, and news reports, this book is the first English-language publication to provide such a comprehensive documentation and analysis of the nature of China's legal regulation of controlled substances. The authors also offer theoretical approaches for studying drug regulation, aspects of drug consumption cultures, the socio-political treatment of drugs during various historical periods and ongoing efforts to legislate drug trade, criminalize drug use and manage the drug addict population within national and international contexts.

China's Drug Practices and Policies: Regulating Controlled Substances in a Global Context

Liang, Bin

Reference

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Miethe, Terance D.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Miethe, Terance D.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Miethe, Terance D.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Panic: The Social Construction of the Street Gang Problem

Crime Profiles: The Anatomy of Dangerous Persons, Places, and Situations

Simple Statistics: Applications in Criminology and Criminal Justice

Simple Statistics: Applications in Social Research

China's Death Penalty: History, Law and Contemporary Practices (Routledge Advances in Criminology)

Rethinking Homicide: Exploring the Structure and Process Underlying Deadly Situations (Cambridge Studies in Criminology)

Punishment: A Comparative Historical Perspective

Rethinking Homicide: Exploring the Structure and Process Underlying Deadly Situations (Cambridge Studies in Criminology)

Punishment: A Comparative Historical Perspective

China's Drug Practices and Policies: Regulating Controlled Substances in a Global Context