Book Review: Crime Types: A Text/Reader

• Published date: 01 May 2005
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016805275696
• Date: 01 May 2005
• Subject Matter: Articles

The character traits of the virtuous person are developed and displayed through habitual

behavior that results in becoming a person of excellent character.

Stoicism, hedonism, and ethical egoism are discussed in chapter 11, and although the

author explains how these might be applied in solving ethical questions, it is readily apparent

that these fall on the question of goodness, or fairness, or justice toward others.

An ethic of social justice, that of John Rawls, is the subject of the 12th chapter. Social jus-

tice is explained to be the fair distribution of burdens and benefits. Applications of unequal

burdens or benefits may only be ethically justified if they favor the least fortunate persons in

society.

The last chapter offers a refreshing shift in frame of reference: feminist theory—“caring

for others” (p. 269). Feminist theorists criticize traditional theory for its notion of the isolated

individual who is challenged with the task of determining how he ought to treat others. Femi-

nist theory is, rather, based on the connectedness of persons and the trust arising from

relationships.

In conclusion, Cyndi Banks has produced a criminal justice ethics textbook that is insight-

ful, thought-provoking, and understandable and was planned with student learning in mind.

The material inversion indeed should aid the student in the study of ethics, and the applied

ethics sections are especially helpful in understanding how one is to make actual ethical deci-

sions in criminal justice.

Edward J. Schauer

Prairie View A&M University

Crime Types: A Text/Reader, edited by Dean A. Dabney. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2004,

406 pp.

DOI: 10.1177/0734016805275696

The first time I saw this book, I asked myself, “Why do we need another book about crimi-

nology theory?” But when I finished reading the book, I realized that this is not just an ordi-

nary theory book like many others we already have. This book is different from most in terms

of content, context, style, and framework. Unlike the traditional theory texts, Dabney does

not explain the proposition or concept of the dominant theories as set forth by the original

theorists. Rather, this book is a compilation of 21 well-written research articles based on

these theories. Most of these articles have already been published in leading refereed crimi-

nology and criminal justice journals.

This text/reader of criminological theory adopts the typological approach to understand-

ing the criminal or delinquent behavior and categorizes different types of criminal behavior

around this conceptual framework. This approach requires categorizing similar types of

criminal behavior in one group and explaining them by using a conceptual framework of dif-

ferent theories.

This book identifies and discusses seven categories of criminal behavior based on the

typological approach: homicide and assault, violent sex crimes, robbery, burglary, common

property crime, public order crime, and crime within complex organizations. Although

Dabney realizes that some of these categories are more complex than others, and some cate-

106 Criminal Justice Review