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RR 2014/288 Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice Edited by Gerben Bruinsma and David Weisburd Springer New York 2014 ISBN 978 1 4614 5690 2 URL: www.springer.com/social+sciences/criminology/book/978-1-4614-5689-6 Last visited July 2014 £3,427.20 $4,350 Also available as a 10 Vol. print set (ISBN 978 1 4614 5689 6 £2880 $4350) or a print and online bundle (ISBN 978 1 4614 5691 9 £3600 $5,400)
Keywords Criminal justice, Criminology, Encyclopedias
Review DOI 10.1108/RR-07-2014-0210
The intent in the Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice, reviewed here in its online version, is to provide a "[. . .][c]omprehensive reference tool for the field of criminology and criminal justice, with an international perspective". The proposal is that in ten volumes (there is also a print version), the encyclopedia will provide an international and comprehensive resource not only identifying the past and current research related to this field, but also identifying emerging trends. As usual, Springer establishes a lofty goal.
There are ten main areas covered in this work: corrections and criminal justice supervision in the community; courts, sentencing and the judicial system; crimes, criminals and victims; crime places and situations; explanations for criminal behaviour; forensic science; data, methods and statistics; police and law enforcement; psychology of law; and social interventions and prevention. The authors who contribute to this work reflect these ten main areas. The end result is a resource with over 600 entries covering this wide expanse of criminal justice and criminology.
Searching the resource is easily done. Signing on to the work will take the user directly to a table of contents. Entries are arranged in alphabetical order, so a quick survey of the table of contents will take one to the relevant entries, such as Age-Crime Curve. The author or authors of the specific entry are immediately identified. From here, the user can click on the blue hyperlinked title to get a brief overview of the entry. Clicking on the...