Overview

In this era of unparalleled affluence, the dangerous offender has become a figure of collective anxiety for the citizens of rationalised Western societies. Questions of why sexual and violent offences seem so ubiquitous, and of how we should protect ourselves, has produced a glut of political and media rhetoric in recent years. Dangerous Offenders takes a different view of the problem. The image of the dangerous offender, and the idea that such individuals pose quantifiable 'risks' to the public are interrogated by scholars from the fields of criminology, sociology and law. The authors consider: * ideas of danger and social threat in historical perspective * legal responses to violent criminals * attempts to predict dangerous behaviour * why particular groups, such as women, remain at risk from violent crime. This collection invites us to rethink the received wisdom on dangerous offenders. it concludes that the control of these people has become such a potent issue in 'risk' societies as their apparently random offences represent the antithesis of the calculable risk. Dangerous Offenders will be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of criminology and the sociology of Risk. Roderic Broadhurst University of Hong Kong, Mark Brown University of Melbourne, Australia, Nils Christie University of Oslo, Norway, Arie Freiberg University of Melbourne

Full Product Details

Author:   Mark Brown ,  John Pratt ,  Mark Brown ,  John Pratt
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 1.40cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.453kg
ISBN:  

9780415200479

ISBN 10:   0415200474
Pages:   208
Publication Date:   13 April 2000
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors. Introduction Mark Brown and John Pratt Part I: Dangerousness: A Social History 1. Risk societies and the government of crime Pat O'Malley 2. The birth of dangerousness John Pratt Part II: Legal Responses and Responsibilities 3. Guerillas in our midst? Judicial responses to governing the dangerous Arie Freiberg 4. Civil commitment as social control: Managing the risk of sexual violence Eric Janus Part III: Practical Risks: Danger in the Penal Context 5. Calculations of risk in contemporary penal practice Mark Brown 6. Criminal careers, sex offenders and dangerousness Rod Broadhurst 7. Danger and penal politics Richard Sparks Part IV: Violence, Danger and Modern Government: The Future 8. Naturalising danger: Women, fear and personal safety Elizabeth Stanko 9. Drugs and dangerousness: Perception and management of risk in the neo-liberal era Adam Sutton 10. Dangerous states Nils Christie

Reviews

Brown and Pratt bring together scholars from the fields of criminology, sociology, and law who interrogate the idea that dangerous offenders pose qualifiable risks to the public. The authors consider ideas of danger, social threat, and legal responses to violent criminals in their historical contexts and critique systematic efforts to predict dangerous individuals.. <br>- Law and Social Inquiry, Vol. 27, Number 1. <br> To the editors' credit, this volume offers a rich sampling (p. 6) of work on dangerousness and risk from several nations and is well organized. It will be of interest to researchers in criminology, sociologies of law, penality, and criminal justice, as well as to anyone interested in the risk society thesis and governmentality studies. While too advanced for undergraduate students, this book will make a superb text for a graduate course in any of these subfields. Overall, it effectively critiques criminological writings on dangerousness and problematizes existingnotions of dangerousness and risk. In short, this book accomplishes what it sets of to do.. <br>-American Journal of Sociology <br> Brown and Pratt bring together scholars from the fields of criminology, sociology, and law who interrogate the idea that dangerous offenders pose quantifiable risks to the public. The authors consider ideas of danger, social threat, and legal responses to violent criminals in their historical contexts and critique systematic efforts to predict dangerous individuals. Law and Society Inquiry Vol. 27, Number 1 . <br> This volume adds to the extensive literature on dangerousness by seeking to analyze the theoretical rationale underpinning the shift from predictive studiesto a broader concern with the ubiquity of risk and its accompanying management strategies... Although I have illustrated some equivocation about the way which the editorial challenge has been met, this volume presents a solid framework of current data and theoretical analyses of the meaning dangerousness in the current political and penal climate.. <br>-Current Issues in Criminal Justice, Deidre Greig, University of Melbourne <br> This collection represents a well-rounded, well-written yet brief compendium of some of the key issues facing criminal justice today. Meant for those already familiar with some of the underlying currents of criminal justice policy, this collection deserves a broad audience, as it forcefully points to some of the implications of these trends for future generations. <br>-Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology <br>

Author Information

Mark Brown is lecturer in Criminology at the University of Melbourne. John Pratt is reader in Criminology at the Victoria University of Melbourne.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions