An Introduction to Criminal Psychology

This book provides a comprehensive overview of approaches to understanding crime and criminal behaviour, with a focus on psychological perspectives. A wide range of different types of criminal behaviour are considered, including juvenile crime, violent offending, sexual offending, collective violence, drug use, and property and public disorder offending. For each type of offence a clear overview of key conceptual and methodological issues is provided along with a detailed consideration of the major theoretical approaches that have been developed. The book concludes by considering how our theoretical understanding of crime can inform our responses to criminal behaviour in terms of punishment, prevention and rehabilitation.