The Mythology of Crime and Criminal Justice

by Victor E. Kappeler

This innovative alternative to traditional textbooks provides insightful observations of myths and trends in criminal justice. The authors dissect popular images of crimes and criminals in a cogent, compelling, and engaging manner. They confront the misleading statistics and fears that form the basis of myths - and the collateral damage of basing policies on mythical beliefs. The text encourages skepticism about commonly accepted beliefs and provides the tools necessary for critical thinking about complex problems.

Genres: Nonfiction, Read For School, Sociology

354 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone with a post-secondary and graduate-level educational background in criminal justice and justice administration, this was a rather informative read. There are myths portrayed as fact, or nearly that, during undergraduate and graduate programs regarding crime and criminal justice, but this book helps in understanding those "facts" in the context of a politicized and media influenced system. It helps to question what we see, hear, and read about crime and criminal justice to determine whether it is true or miscontrued to support what the media and government wants people to believe.

[Alexa · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I had to read this for my intro to Criminology class, and, honestly I think this book did a pretty good job of covering the basics of every area of crime and criminal justice. For someone like me, who has no knowledge of this subject, I found this book to be easily understandable and learned some really interesting information. However, sometimes it was hard to distinguish when the book was talking about myths and when it was talking about actual fact. I think an easy way to fix this would have been to change change the formatting a little bit and instead of mixing fact and fiction together, maybe separate them into different chapter sections to make them more easily distinguishable.

[Lauren]

too soon to tell...

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Examines the construction of crime and the social phenomenon that contribute to popular misconceptions of crime and criminal offenders.