In Their Own Words Criminals on Crime

The only anthology of its kind, In Their Own Words: Criminals on Crime, Seventh Edition, provides students with a nuanced perspective on how--and why--offenders make decisions that lead them to commit crimes. Featuring firsthand accounts from gang members, burglars, shoplifters, pimps, prostitutes, killers, robbers, addicts, rapists, drug smugglers, and white-collar offenders, the anthology helps students understand the offenders' motives, perceptions, decision-making strategies, and rationalizations for crime.

Paul Cromwell is Professor of Criminology and Director of Social Science at the University of South Florida.

Michael L. Birzer is Professor of Criminal Justice and Director of the School of Community Affairs at Wichita State University.

Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Editors
About the Contributors
SECTION I: DOING FIELDWORK WITH OFFENDERS
Introduction
Chapter 1. Researching Crack Dealers: Dilemmas and Contradictions, Bruce A. Jacobs
Jacobs points out the inherent dangers associated with studying street criminals.
Chapter 2: Consenting to Talk: Why Inmates Participate in Prison Research, Heith Copes and Andy Hochstetler
Copes and Hochstetler discuss the motives of incarcerated offenders in their decision to discuss their crimes and behaviors with researchers.
SECTION II: CRIMINAL LIFESTYLES AND DECISION MAKING
Introduction
Chapter 3. Deciding to Commit a Burglary, Richard T. Wright and Scott H. Decker
Wright and Decker explore the motives that drive the decision to commit a burglary.
Chapter 4. Opportunities and Decisions: Interactional Dynamics in Robbery and Burglary Groups, Andy Hochstetler
The author analyzes the decision-making process of offenders working in groups.
Chapter 5. Auto Theft and Restrictive Deterrence, Bruce A. Jacobs and Michael C. Cherbonneau
The authors analyze the restrictive deterrence decision making strategies of thirty-five active auto thieves.
SECTION III: PROPERTY CRIME
Introduction
Chapter 6. Establishing Connections: Gender, Motor Vehicle Theft, and Disposal Networks, Christopher W. Mullins and Michael C. Cherbonneau
The authors examine the gendered nature of motor vehicle theft.
Chapter 7. "The Devil Made Me Do It": Use of Neutralizations by Shoplifters, Paul Cromwell and Quint Thurman
Cromwell and Thurman discuss the justifications, excuses, and neutralizations used by shoplifters to explain their crimes.
Chapter 8. Identity Theft: Assessing Offenders' Motivations and Strategies, Heath Copes and Lynne Vieraitis
Copes and Vieraitis shed light on the motives, perceptions of risk, and strategies involved in identity theft.
SECTION IV: VIOLENT CRIME
Introduction
Chapter 9. Gendering Violence: Masculinity and Power in Men's Accounts of Domestic Violence, Kristin L. Anderson and Debra Umberson
The authors reveal the strategies used by abusing males in an effort to portray themselves as rational and nonviolent.
Chapter 10. Serendipity in Robbery Target Selection, Bruce A. Jacobs
Jacobs argues that robbers select their victims based not on rational processes, but on serendipity--victims are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Chapter 11. Peaceful Warriors: Codes for Violence Among Adult Male Bar Fighters, Heith Copes, Andy Hochstetler, and Craig J. Forsyth
The authors elaborate on a code of violence as part of a system of order and honor as articulated by a network of white, working-class males in a southern U.S. city who participate in bar fights.
SECTION V: OCCUPATIONAL AND WHITE-COLLAR CRIME
Introduction
Chapter 12. Crime on the Line: Telemarketing and the Changing Nature of Professional Crime, Neal Shover, Glenn S. Coffey, and Dick Hobbs
Shover and his associates examine the lifestyles and motivations of individuals engaged in illegal telemarketing.
Chapter 13. Drugged Druggists: The Convergence of Two Criminal Career Trajectories, Dean A. Dabney and Richard C. Hollinger
Dabney and Hollinger explicate both the onset and progression of illicit prescription drug abuse by pharmacists.
SECTION VI: ILLEGAL OCCUPATIONS
Introduction
Chapter 14. The "Myth of Organization" of International Drug Smugglers, Scott H. Decker and Jana S. Benson
The authors examine drug smuggling from the perspective of those most in the know: the individuals whose roles facilitate the trade.
Chapter 15. Informal Control and Illicit Drug Trade, Scott Jacques and Richard T. Wright
Jacques and Wright use the rational-choice and opportunity perspectives to explore how and why the frequency and seriousness of popular justice affect the prices and rate of drug sales.
Chapter 16. A Perversion of Choice: Sex Work Offers Just Enough in Chicago's Urban Ghetto, Eva Rosen and Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh
Using in-depth interviews and participant observation, Rosen and Venkatesh investigate Chicago's sex work economy.
SECTION VII: GANGS AND CRIME
Introduction
Chapter 17. Gang-Related Gun Violence: Socialization, Identity, and Self, Paul B. Stretesky and Mark R. Pogrebin
The authors examine how gang socialization leads to gun-related violence.
Chapter 18. Gender and Victimization Risk Among Young Women in Gangs, Jody Miller
Miller explores the extent to which being a female member of a youth gang shapes girls' risk of victimization.
Chapter 19. Voices from the Barrio: Chicano/a Gangs, Families, and Communities, Marjorie S. Zatz and Edwardo L. Portillos
The authors examine gang members and their families to ascertain the impact of gang activity on the community at large.
SECTION VIII: DRUGS AND CRIME
Introduction
Chapter 20. "E" is for Ecstasy: A Participant Observation Study of Ecstasy Use, Wilson R. Palacios and Melissa E. Fenwick
Palacios and Fenwick examine the "club" culture and crime.
Chapter 21. "Cooks are Like Gods": Hierarchies in Methamphetamine-Producing Groups, Robert Jenkot
Jenkot reports on his study of methamphetamine-producing groups and identifies the various roles and statuses involved in the process.
SECTION IX: QUITTING CRIME
Introduction
Chapter 22. Getting Out of the Life: Crime Desistance by Female Street Offenders, Ira Sommers, Deborah R. Baskin, and Jeffery Fagan
The authors examine the process by which women offenders desist from crime.
Chapter 23. The Victimization-Termination Link, Scott Jacques and Richard T. Wright
Jacques and Wright analyze the process by which middle-class drug dealers desist from their illicit enterprise.