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Huge introduction to criminology
A new textbook on criminology is an ideal, huge, epic even, introduction to the subject for students. Mark Rowe writes.
Criminology by Prof Tim Newburn is a 1000-page doorstopper that even in paperback is the sort of book so heavy you have to tense yourself before you lift it. As Newburn, a criminologist at the London School of Economics, says at the very start, his book is aimed at new or nearly new students of the subject, which does include security and risk managers at universities such as Leicester, Loughborough and Portsmouth. For the general reader, Newburn has excelled by making a surprisingly easy read, well broken up into chapters and seldom stodgy page after page of forbidding text. Also, though Newburn is offering a review of his subject and has to rely on the work of many others - some 100 other academics at the start are named for reading parts of the book - I found the book thought-provoking rather than a bland digest of 'on the one hand Dr X says ... on the other hand Mr Y argues ...' that textbooks can fall into. Whether the book takes enough notice of crimes in the workplace, and the crime work that security managers have to do, is another thing.
Private expansion
Let's take the two chapters (of 36) that have most to do with private security: one on white-collar and corporate crime: and one on police and policing. Private security as usual are the last body of policing people in a section on 'plural policing'. We get a photo of a uniformed security officer (from Senator) talking into a radio on a shopping mall; and a CCTV notice. By the way, for saying that CCTV is supposed to be so controversial, CCTV gets barely a word in this book. Newburn writes the orthodox view of the apparent 'very significant' expansion in private security in recent times: "CCTV cameras now survey every city centre, walled and gated communities are beginning to spring up and a growing array of uniformed guards, wardens and others are to be found patrolling streets and local communities." But he adds that it's easy to exaggerate the novelty of private policing, pointing to census data of occupations to suggest that the number of security guards was more than the number of police as early as 1961, if anything, the recent rise in police numbers has closed the gap. So was there ever a public monopoly of policing? Newburn doubts it. He points too to 'the gradual and sustained formalisation of social control'. Let me put another way: again quoting from the census, the numbers of park-keepers, bus and train ticket inspectors, and other people keeping an informal look-out in public, have fallen. And as I understand it: if the average person sees a youth being a nuisance or hears foul language in a queue, they are less likely to do the’ social control' - tell the offender to behave. Instead, you're more likely to complain to the security guard in the supermarket, mall or wherever.
White-collar crime
The chapter on white-collar crime shows how impressively up to date Newburn has been; a book on desks in mid-September mentions the mid-July conviction of former Daily Telegraph owner Conrad Black for fraud. Here my gripe comes: Newburn quotes from Michael Levi, the Cardiff professor and academic authority on fraud, who earlier this year was behind an ACPO report. That's one of nine writings by Levi in an enormous bibliography of 50 pages and about 1600 books and articles. But why no room for the works of Mike Comer, such as Corporate Fraud? Because Mike Comer is a practitioner and not an academic. Similarly you have to question the priorities of a book of 1000 pages about the study of crime that gives just over a page to retail theft, compared with two chapters on 'feminist criminology' and 'gender, crime and justice'. To repeat, this book is a fine book for the student of criminology to have at their side. But it’s not such a good advertisement for how UK criminology engages with the majority of people actually trying to deter and solve crime.
Dip in
That said, the book does have a full index at the back and list of contents at the front, which suits such a long book that readers will dip into, rather than read cover to cover once. For instance in a chapter ‘policing and psychology', there's a couple of useful pages summing up 'lying and lie detection'. Again, Comer has had many practitioner-based things to say on this score. Newburn quotes research that suggests the professionals such as police officers (new or experienced) are only roughly able to detect lies at the same rate as chance guesses. Yes, there are spoken and facial cues that may indicate a lie - such as pauses or sweating. But it may not. And as for the polygraph or lie-detector, as used on FBI recruits, Newburn writes:
"Polygraph use is most common in the United States and there are many practitioners who are convinced of its effectiveness. Needless to say, its practical use is far from unproblematic. Crucially, it is perfectly possible that intense questioning may produce intense reactions in anyone subject to it, guilty or innocent." It may lead to more confessions, just by putting pressure on suspects. As for the price, some similar books are even dearer, would you believe. A shorter alternative is Kate Williams', from Oxford University Press - a sixth edition is planned next year. Newburn's will see you through a criminology course, and in that case would be excellent value for money.
Criminology by Prof Tim Newburn, 2007, Willan Publishing. ISBN-13: 978-1-84392-284-1, paperback, 1056 pages, £29.99.
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