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Criminological Perspectives: Essential Readings (Published in association with The Open University)
by (Editor: Eugene McLaughlin) (Editor: John Muncie) (Editor: Duplicate Please Use 611421) (Editor: Gordon Hughes)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd (2002-11-20)
ISBN: 0761941444
EAN: 9780761941446
Dewy Decimal #: 364
Paperback: 612 pages
Edition: Second Edition
Condition: Acceptable
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Customer Reviews
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Fantastic as an in-depth secondary text. Paints the individual trees in the forest particularly well.
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-07-29
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
The Oxford Handbook of Criminology is a very broad overview of a vast array of sources, with chapters averaging forty-ish pages and extensive bibliographies to each. It is very much a secondary analysis text to my eyes; a comprehensive collating of data that gives an overview of criminology that is second to none. The Oxford Handbook has been (for me) a far better introduction to criminology, and is written in a way that I find far more accessible. The fourth edition of the OHC is - furthermore - at the time of writing far descriptive of contemporary criminology. It was published in 2007 with the chapters being written as descriptive of contemporary criminology.
Criminological perspectives is a different beast altogether. It's aimed at scratching an itch. Yes - it is extremely comprehensive; and most of the sources it covers are snippets from original works that the OHC will build on, develop and extrapolate from. Criminological perspectives offers many of the roots which have burgeoned into the fields that the OHC covers. So - for example - the first few chapters are snippets directly from the writings of Quetelet, Lombroso, Beccaria, Bonger, Durkheim, Bentham, etc. A sizeable chunk of Sykes' and Matza's 'Techniques of Neutralization' is reproduced from 1957 without critique or commentary - it is a chunk of the original article reprinted (as a brief rummage around JSTOR will verify).
Eysenck's explanation of his psychological approach is reproduced, Becker, Hirschi and Gottfredson, Dori Klein, Felson, Bottoms and Wiles, Foucault, Currie, James Q Wilson, Jock Young (and Taylor, Walton and Young separately), Box, Stanley Cohen... The list goes on, and on, and on. All original texts reproduced in chunks of anywhere from two pages of Foucault on governmentality, up to twenty pages of assorted other authors.
The point of Criminological Perspectives - to my eyes - is not to provide the broad, removed, beautifully detailed overview and secondary analysis of the Oxford Handbook. It is not designed to be a text that paints a forest; rather it is a text that paints in the original trees in their glorious original technicolour.
As such Criminological Perspectives is not as easygoing as the OHC. It is more detailed, more challenging, and far harder-going in places. Yet it gathers up a wealth of detail and original sources that show where the OHC has come from, and offers many of the texts that the OHC refers to time and time again. It complements the OHC beautifully because each scratches an itch that the other one is not targeted at scratching.
If a budding criminologist is only going to buy one text, I'd recommend the OHC with all my heart. But if there's room in your wallet for a second text and you really are prepared to work for your degree / qualification / whatever, then Criminological Perspectives remains a fantastic and thoroughly worthwhile addition.
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OU D315 course reader
Rating  (4)
Date: 2003-11-21
16 out of 16 customers found this reveiw helpful
Essentially, I HAD to read this for the Open University D315 course - but it has to be said it is an easy read. Seperated into key blocks makes for easy navigation and the articles included are varied and very helpful to any criminology student. I find that very few course readers are as interesting as this one proved to be, it is a really handy book for students(see also the Sage dictionary of Criminology - excellent too)
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