Confronting Crime

The tide is turning for radical criminology. For over two decades it has neglected the effect of crime upon the victim and concentrated on the impact of the state -- through the process of labelling -- on the criminal. There is nothing wrong with this "per se "but the result is that the basic triangle of relations which is the proper subject matter of criminology -- the offender, the state and the victim -- has yet to be fully developed. It is to this task that the new radical criminology and this book address themselves. Confronting Crime seeks to trace out and relate the causes of crime, the impact upon the victim and the role of the state. In doing this, it seeks progressive, realistic alternatives to the failed policies presently pursued.

At a time when orthodox criminology is in crisis, there is a pressing social and political need for radical voices to address the question of crime and its regulation. This book tackles key topics of current concern -- rape, unemployment and crime, race and crime, policing, drug abuse and prostitution. Central themes run through these topics: the need to construct a criminology which is non-sexist, takes account of victims of crime, recognises ethnicity and, above all, the need to construct positive and progressive policy initiatives.

Confronting Crime is essential reading for criminologists and students of criminology, and for those concerned with crime and its regulation.