Summary

Building Modern Criminology collects four decades of theoretical essays and research papers by David Greenberg, a sociologist pulled away by his political experiences during the Vietnam War from a career in theoretical high energy physics into criminology. The papers take up critical questions in the study of crime, including the explanation of group differences, the nature of criminal careers, and historical trends in violence. Other papers address the historical development of criminal prohibitions, modes of punishment, and the effectiveness of sanctions in preventing crime. These seminal efforts have helped to build a logically coherent, empirically grounded criminology that understands the criminal law, patterns of crime and social responses to it in their historically-specific, social contexts. This volume is indispensable for students, teachers and working criminological researchers engaging with cutting-edge issues in contemporary criminology.