Product Description

Downes and Rock's popular textbook, Understanding Deviance provides the reader with an indispensable guide to criminological theory. It sympathetically outlines the principal theories of crime and rule-breaking, discussing them chronologically, and placing them in their European and North American contexts, confronting major criticisms that have been voiced against them, and constructing defences where appropriate. The book has been thoroughly revised and brought up to date to include new issues of crime, deviance and theory in the early twenty-first century, and includes summaries of cultural criminology and the work of Laub and Sampson, and Gottfredson and Hirschi, on control theory.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #158380 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
"From a discipline that is replete with jargon, these authors manage to produce an accessible, elegantly written text which is not only of value to the new student but which will enable practitioners and policy makers to refresh and revitalise their theoretical understanding of crime and deviance." Vista - Perspectives on Probation 2004, on the previous edition

About the Author
David Downes is Professor Emeritus of Social Administration at the London School of Economics. He is a member of the management committee of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, and of the Howard League for Penal Reform.

Customer Reviews

Over Complicated for no reason
This is considered to be key reading for any sociology of deviancy module, but i dont understand why. Each chapter is long winded, and confussing. It takes the authors a long time to get to the point they are trying to make and it seems that they are being complicated for the sake if being complicated, and this is not what students need or want.
Instead I recommend Goode's 'Deviant Behaviour' book, it covers more topics and is more interesting to read, and is great for revision.

very easy to read and to be able to obtain a good.........
This book is an excelent resource for degree level Deviance it is clear,concise and to the point. Each chpter of the book is clearly layed out for th benefit of the reader!

A rejoinder to previous review
I have to offer a counter to the previous viewpoint. Downes and Rock is an extremely thorough text which addresses the various applications of social theory to the question of deviance and offending. It is, at times, dense and difficult to read, but that reflects the subject matter: simplistic understanding of issues of deviance and crime result in simplistic responses. I cannot think of a single text that produces both an overview and depth of understanding.