Book Review: Policing World Society: Historical Foundations of International Police Cooperation

• DOI: 10.1177/1057567707299318
• Date: 01 March 2007
• Author: Aogán Mulcahy
• Published date: 01 March 2007
• Subject Matter: Articles

Book Reviews 63

requires accurate risk profiles to predict dangerousness of each offender to aid in sentencing. Bail,

probation, and parole are dependent on risk assessments of offenders for the protection of society.

The remaining chapters in this section review human rights initiatives, European trends in youth

offending, and the policing of transnational organized crime as they relate to punishment.

Part III focuses on the location of crime and offender mobility. The authors borrow from geo-

graphical information systems theory and provide good empirical analyses of routine activity theory

and situational crime prevention theory as decision-making models. David Weisburd (chapter 10)

reviews the theoretical basis for “hot spot” policing as a strategy for crime prevention, citing theorists

including Quetelet, Guerry, Sutherland, and the Chicago School. He evaluates major evidence-based

research in crime prevention policing strategies, such as Sherman and Weisburd’s Kansas City

preventive patrol experiment and the Minneapolis hot spots experiment.

George Rengert (chapter 11) uses geographical theories on barriers to spatial movement to

explain crime patterns. He outlines barriers that influence the likelihood of crime in a particular area:

absorbing barriers that stop the movement of criminals (e.g., incarceration), permeable barriers that

decrease the movement or ease of committing crimes (e.g., physical barriers such as fences and

locks), psychological barriers that change the mind-set of the criminal (e.g., crime prevention

through environmental design techniques), and reflecting barriers that force criminals to change the

direction of crime and lead to crime displacement. Henk Elffers (chapter 12) uses rational choice

theory to better understand the spatial movement of criminals and their decision-making processes.

He measures the distance of the crime from the criminal’s home, neighborhood factors that influ-

ence the likelihood of crime in specific areas, and barriers to offenders’ spatial movement that may

influence where criminals commit crimes.

The final section of the book reviews perpetrators and their criminal careers. The authors study

life-course criminal activity and outline different methodologies for its empirical analysis. Issues of

causality in measuring criminal careers are raised, as are both psychological research identifying

characteristics of career criminals and research on delinquent youth trajectories and the influence of

their peers. Although the chapters in this section are interesting, they are brief and do not discuss the

influential work of criminologists Robert Sampson and John Laub on crime and the life course or

Ronald Akers’s social learning theory of peer influence on crime.

On the whole, Punishment, Places and Perpetrators is a good overview of the trends in criminal

justice policy. The chapters cite relevant literature, including theory- and evidence-based research.

The book moves beyond typical texts because it combines three key areas of criminological research

and attempts to extend international scholarship. However,the book would benefit from better cohe-

sion between chapters as to the theoretical developments and methodological challenges that arise

from studying these diverse research areas. This would enhance the book’s overall contribution and

make it a valuable international volume of work. All in all, this book is a good introduction to the

general issues relevant in the field and would be helpful for those new to criminology.

Rachel Dioso-Villa

University of California, Irvine

Deflem, M. (2002). Policing World Society: Historical Foundations of International Police

Cooperation. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

DOI: 10.1177/1057567707299318

Mathieu Deflem’s Policing World Society is an insightful and thought-provoking account of the

processes and institutions that laid the historical foundations of international police cooperation.