Introducing Criminology begins by asking basic questions: what is crime? what is criminology?, before examining the ways in which crime has been studied, and looking at the main approaches and schools of thought within criminology and how these have been developed. The authors focus particularly upon attempts to understand and explain crime by the disciplines of psychology and sociology, and consider also the impact of feminist and postmodern thought on the development of the subject. In the second part of the book the authors take three very different topics to illustrate themes raised in the first half of the book, exploring the particular issues raised by each topic, and showing how criminologists have gone about their work.
Clive Coleman is a Lecturer in Criminology in the Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Hull.
Clive Norris is Professor of Sociology, Head of Department, and Deputy Director of the Centre for Criminological Research at Sheffield University.