Criminological Theories: Introduction, Evaluation, and Application

by Ronald L. Akers, Christine S. Sellers, Wesley G. Jennings

In Criminological Theories: Introduction, Evaluation, and Application, Eighth Edition, Ronald L. Akers, Christine S. Sellers, and Wesley G. Jennings provide a concise but thorough review and appraisal of the leading theories of crime and criminal justice. Based on the widespread success of the first seven editions, this landmark book keeps current with changes in the development, testing, integration, and application of important criminological theories. Each chapter has been updated and substantially revised in light of recent research and important changes in the theories. More extensive revision and updating have been done on biological and biosocial, psychological, social disorganization, and conflict theories.

Genres: Nonfiction, Textbooks, Crime, School

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Librarian note: There is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads database.

Ronald Louis Akers was an American criminologist and professor emeritus of criminology and law at the University of Florida's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Reviews

[Scott]

This book does give a pretty good overview of various criminological theories. There are some great online tools to help out as well.
The biggest problem I have with it is the bias from the authors against other theories, especially Social Bonding.
Maybe that's a problem with all books, but this one is written by the ones that came up with Social Learning and they make it known that everything else is inferior to that or is really just that.

[Maddy M-N]

Great textbook! So much good information!

[A A]

Great read, if you want to know why people commit crimes, theoretically of course.

[Dominique]

Great read and was helpful for my criminology course