Persistent thieves,criminals who resume committing crimes of burglary, robbery, vehicle theft, and ordinary theft despite previous attempts to stop,are a main focal point of American criminology and criminal justice. Cast as career criminals," they are also one of the principal targets of the war on crime" that American governments have waged for more than two decades.Building on a theoretical interpretation of crime as choice, crime-control policies and programs justified by notions of deterrence and incapacitation have proliferated. America's urban police departments now have repeat offender units," and many of the new state sentencing codes mandate lengthy sentences for defendants with previous convictions. Great Pretenders is based on the author's original studies and previously published research and on more than fifty autobiographies of persistent thieves. Shover uses a crime-as-choice framework and a life-course perspective to make sense of important decisions and changes in the lives of persistent thieves. He shows how the working-class origins of most persistent thieves produce both low legitimate and low criminal aspirations, even as those origins leave them ill equipped to exploit comparatively safe, lucrative, and newer forms of criminal opportunity.In this book Shover describes how many persistent thieves and hustlers identify with crime and pursue a lifestyle of life as party in which their choices alternately are made in contexts of drug-using hedonism or desperation. Their estimates of the likely payoffs from crime are severely distorted, and most give little thought to possible arrest. As they get older, however, persistent thieves make qualitative changes in the crimes they commit, and many eventually stop committing crimes altogether.The author highlights some unintended consequences of harsh crime control measures and raises critical questions about the one-size-fits-all approach to crime of recent decades.
"An unforgettable novel from an award-winning author about an ambitious young agent's daring fight to protect blacklisted writers in McCarthy-era Hollywood and her passionate relationship with an African American journalist.
What is known about him is summarized by T. Besterman , The DrucePortland Case ( London , 1935 ) , pp . 12–17 , by D. J. Bradbury , Welbeck and the Fifth Duke of Portland ( Mansfield , 1989 ) , pp . 31–34 , and on the Internet ...
And what does that mean for our understanding of mental illness today? These are the questions Susannah Cahalan asks in her completely engrossing investigation into this staggering case, where nothing is quite as it seems.
The Great Pretender is the unlikely story of a broken young Christian man who struggles with the glaring dichotomy of his proclaimed faith, while desperately trying to make sense of his crumbling life.
This book is not just an evisceration of the ANC, however, as Harvey is able, through many interviews and patient delving into the past and present, to provide an indispensable guide to the future.
Presents illustrated instructions for constructing masks, disguises, and costume accessories and for applying simple makeup.
They were drunk and Terry's friend Jackson didn't even have on his seat belt. Not only was Jackson really drunk, but he was also speeding and he ran his car right into an liquor store! Jackson didn't make it and my cousin, Terry, ...
Presents illustrated instructions for constructing costumes from posterboard, paper bags, boxes, and fabric.
Richard Barrett III wants to ace the program so he can go home, pretend he's straight, and go to college.
It is also the story of how one brilliant man, Syria-born Dr Najar, finally proved - using a simple pen and paper - that Susannah's psychotic behaviour was caused by a rare autoimmune disease attacking her brain.