ABSTRACT
With this in mind, I am able to set this book into perspective. I make no imperialist claims on behalf of psychology; crime cannot be explained solely by psychological theory. However, what I believe psychology can do is to contribute to criminology both in terms of its methodology, and by the application of some of its own data base and theory. Further, crime and criminals raise a number of practical issues, principally in two fields. First, how can it be determined whether or not an individual has committed an offence when so accused? Second, when an individual has committed an offence how, if at all, are we to respond to that person? Psychology on its own cannot provide all the answers but, once again, I believe it has a contribution to make. In this light, therefore, the emphasis
of this book will be the contribution psychology can make to the study of crime. Of necessity the bulk of each chapter is concerned with psychological research and theories as applied to some aspect of crime. Each chapter ends with a short section labelled ‘Perspective’. The function of these sections is precisely as the name suggests: to provide a sense of perspective by addressing some point raised in the preceding material.
