ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in this book. The book focuses on crime and the risky situations in which crime emerges. It reviews many ideas in criminology that help organize information about how crime happens, what motivates offenders, and how crime can be reduced. Criminology's great challenge is to explain when, where, and how crime risk is highest. That is a difficult task since crime usually does not occur as people go about their daily lives in ordinary ways. Crime theorists have different interpretations of the example just given. Some theorists emphasize self-control or social control that prevents problems from escalating into crime. Other theorists pay closer attention to learning processes that enhance or inhibit misbehavior. The book presents these conflicting theories. Despite their differences, criminologists in the end have to face a common reality: Certain situations produce an elevated risk that a criminal act will occur.
