Criminological Theories and Theorists
An American Social Perspective on Crime
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There is quite a difference between the application of a strict legal definition of crime that presupposes a conviction and a sociological study of the act performed in relation to societal interests. For example, suppose a young man were to buy a gun and use it to complete the armed robbery of a local establishment in his hometown. Suppose further he were acquitted at trial on a legal technicality. Has he committed a crime? Not legally. The victimized store clerk may be permanently adversely affected by the young man’s behavior. Society has been harmed; yet, there is no crime. Obviously, from the criminal justice perspective, society must deal with the system of laws, the procedures of law enforcement, the court system, and correctional institutions. But criminologists from an academic vantage point must be more concerned with the underlying reasons for the young man’s behavior than the operation of the societal organizations established to deal with that behavior. By understanding the actions harmful to society, the actors who have caused the harm, and the reasons for those actions, society derives an enormous benefit from the discipline aimed at preventing such actions in the future. The definition of crime is secondary. The focus is on the behavior deemed unacceptable by society.
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About the Book
Criminological Theories and Theorists focuses on many of the traditional hypotheses about the causes of crime, the possibility of crime prevention, and the significant historical figures associated with crime theory – all from an American sociological perspective.
In Part One, Professor Botta discusses The Foundations of Early Criminological Thought, chronologically guiding his readers from the dawn of the theoretical roots of societal crime mythology to the doorstep of the science of criminology in America in the modern age.
In Part Two, Professor Botta introduces his readers to The Foundations of Modern Criminological Thought, covering contemporary criminological theories and their sociological impact on the science of criminology in twenty-first century America.
In addition to the substantive material in this intriguing contribution to the classroom and scholarship, a series of essays on contemporary topics and influential philosophical leaders is presented to readers as a pragmatic example of the relationship among several academic disciplines and the science of criminology. This approach demonstrates how philosophical ideas generate sociological policies that help create criminological theory.
This extraordinary presentation represents a concise treatment of the multidisciplinary approaches to criminology practiced in the United States today through a melding of philosophical, interdisciplinary examinations of real-life sociological problems.
About the Author
John J. Botta, Jr. is an Adjunct Professor of Criminology and Sociology at Colby-Sawyer College, an Adjunct Professor of Writing, Humanities, Sociology, and Criminal Justice at Franklin Pierce College, and is former counsel to Federal Agents’ Local 121. Professor Botta has lectured internationally in areas of Critical Thinking, Leadership, and Ethics. He is a graduate of New York Law School (JD), California State University (MA), Trinity College and University in the United Kingdom (MA), and Seton Hall University (BA).
Professor Botta is the author of To Hug an Angel, Surviving the Journey: A Universal Approach for the Student Critic, and Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast: A Study in the Genre of Memoir.
He resides with his wife of thirty-three years in North Sutton, New Hampshire.