Crime And The American Dream - 4th edition

Summary: CRIME AND THE AMERICAN DREAM is the seminal work in a major segment of criminological theory by Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld, both highly respected scholars and researchers. This is a theory book that students will actually understand, with a very clear and accessible writing style. The foundation of the book is institutional anomie theory (an offshoot of Mertonian anomie theory), which the authors posit helps explain why America's over-emphasis on the pursui ...show moret of materialistic gain contributes to the country's high rate of violent crime.

New to the Edition

• The authors have updated statistics and data to reflect the most current information available. Among other things, the book features updated coverage of U.S. crime rates in comparison to other nations, subgroup differences in crime rates within the U.S., and pertinent statistics on social institutions.
• Other important content additions include new illustrations spotlighting the Enron scandal and the response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
• Chapter 2 now includes extended information about on-the-job injuries and deaths in the section on white-collar crime. Chapter 2 also features a reformulated discussion of "American Exceptionalism," which now stresses that a full appreciation of the crime in the U. S. requires attention to 1) the levels of serious offending, and 2) the societal response to crime in the form of mass incarceration.
• The authors have reworked the discussion in Chapter 5 on the social response to crime in the U.S. by updating and expanding the section on sentencing reforms and adding new material on "prisoner re-entry," the critical transition from prison back to the streets. This is a topic of keen interest at present given the large growth in the incarcerated population over recent decades.

Edition/Copyright: 4TH 07
Cover: Paperback
Publisher: Wadsworth, Inc
Published: 02/28/2006

View Table of Contents

PREFACE.

1. A Society Organized for Crime.
2. By Any Means Necessary Serious Crime in America.
3. Ships in the Night Theoretical Perspectives in Contemporary Criminology.
4. Culture, Institutional Structure, and Social Control A Sociological Explanation of Crime.
5. Strengthening Social Institutions and Rethinking the American Dream.

REFERENCES.
INDEX.

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Other Editions of Crime And The American Dream:

*Crime and the American Dream - 5 edition

ISBN13: 978-1111346966