This thoroughly updated and revised new edition provides an essential overview of a full range of psychological contributions to the understanding of crime and the processes of dealing with offenders and helping their victims.

From the cognitive, developmental and social processes that influence a diverse range of crimes, including burglary, fraud, rape and murder, to the challenges faced by the police and courts in investigating crime or securing reliable testimony, the text is packed with pedagogical features that bring this fascinating subject to life. These include boxes highlighting key topics or issues around research methods, further reading and suggested essay titles.

Also including chapters on rehabilitation in prisons and the psychology of victims, the text examines hot topics such as gang membership and terrorism, as well as discussing how psychology may better understand criminals and criminal behaviour in the future. It builds to a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the field. It will be ideal for students across psychology, criminology and socio-legal studies and law.

Criminal Psychology in Action provides a practical, hands-on introduction to criminal psychology through unique projects for students, illustrating the many ways research into crimes and criminals can be conducted. It also provides an overview of many individual and social psychological theories of criminality.

Drawing on over half a century of experience supervising hundreds of projects at undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels, David Canter provides well-grounded and detailed guidance for students of how to conduct a range of relevant and interesting projects designed to engage students directly with empirical research. This includes consideration of the ethical and practical issues of doing research in this area, as well as examples of documents needed for informed consent and submissions to ethical committees. The range of research designs described - laboratory experiments, surveys, case studies and simulations - provide introductions to methodologies relevant to many other areas of research beyond criminal psychology.

Both engaging and interactive, this is an invaluable resource for instructors and students from colleges and universities around the world in many different fields, such as psychology, criminology, and socio-legal studies. It will also be of interest to all those who want to know more about the psychology of crime and criminality.

In the World Library of Psychologists series, international experts present career-long collections of what they judge to be their most interesting publications - extracts from books, key articles, research findings and practical and theoretical contributions.

In this fascinating volume, Professor David Canter refl ects on a career that has earned him an international reputation as one of the U.K.'s most eminent applied social psychologists and a pioneer in the fi eld of environmental psychology, through a selection of papers that illustrate one of the foundational themes of his research career: the psychology of place. Split into four parts, each with a new introduction written by the author, the book provides insights into theories, methods and applications of place psychology. Covering a range of publications from early research in the 1960s up to recent explorations, this volume provides the unfolding research that elaborates this seminal theory, offering rich perspectives on how places gain their significance and meaning.

Featuring specially written commentary by the author contextualizing the selections and providing an intimate overview of his career, this collection of key publications offers a unique and compelling insight into decades of ground-breaking work, making it an essential resource for all those engaged or interested in the study of places.

The recent explosion of research and practice relating to offending and the related investigative and legal processes makes it extremely difficult for anyone to master these emerging areas of research. This book will help readers to navigate through this rapidly expanding area of scholarship and practice by bringing together a number of recent reviews on key topics by leading experts in the field.

Contributions to the volume discuss developments in the study of interviewing and the detection of deception together with explorations of victims and offenders. The psychological background and consequences of school bullying, child sexual abuse and male rape are also explored, as are the challenges of collecting information about crimes as varied as burglary and serial killing.

This book will be a valuable resource for criminologists, crime and forensic psychologists, students of socio-legal processes and all those involved in legal and investigative activities.

The chapters in this book were originally published as review articles in Crime Psychology Review.

Criminal Psychology in Action provides a practical, hands-on introduction to criminal psychology through unique projects for students, illustrating the many ways research into crimes and criminals can be conducted. It also provides an overview of many individual and social psychological theories of criminality.

Drawing on over half a century of experience supervising hundreds of projects at undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels, David Canter provides well-grounded and detailed guidance for students of how to conduct a range of relevant and interesting projects designed to engage students directly with empirical research. This includes consideration of the ethical and practical issues of doing research in this area, as well as examples of documents needed for informed consent and submissions to ethical committees. The range of research designs described - laboratory experiments, surveys, case studies and simulations - provide introductions to methodologies relevant to many other areas of research beyond criminal psychology.

Both engaging and interactive, this is an invaluable resource for instructors and students from colleges and universities around the world in many different fields, such as psychology, criminology, and socio-legal studies. It will also be of interest to all those who want to know more about the psychology of crime and criminality.

You can hardly open a paper or read an academic journal without some attempt to explain an aspect of human behaviour or experience by reference to neuroscience, biological or evolutionary processes. This 'biologising' has had rather a free ride until now, being generally accepted by the public at large. However, there is a growing number of scholars who are challenging the assumption that we are little more than our bodies and animal origins. This volume brings together a review of these emerging critiques expressed by an international range of senior academics from across the social sciences. Their arguments are firmly based in the empirical, scientific tradition. They show the lack of logic or evidence for many 'biologising' claims, as well as the damaging effects these biological assumptions can have on issues such as dealing with dyslexia or treating alcoholism. This important book, originally published as a special issue of Contemporary Social Science, contributes to a crucial debate on what it means to be human.

This collection of articles by David Canter and his colleagues, rigorously argued and richly informative [...] are of immense importance. It is astonishing that, as Canter puts it in his brilliant overview of biologising trends [...] there are those in the humanities who need to be reminded that human beings can talk and interact with each other, generating cultures and societies that have an existence that cannot be reduced to their mere mechanical parts.

Professor Raymond Tallis FRCP FMedSci DLitt LittD in the Preface.

A concise and accessible introduction to criminal psychology, written by one of the world's leading authorities, which familiarizes students with the key concepts and important contemporary debates in the field. It considers the perspectives of all the main protagonists: victim, perpetrator, and examining psychologist.

First published in 1999, this volume brings together a unique range of previously unpublished studies that explore the psychological processes involved in interviewing, statement validation, detecting deception and the use of expert witnesses for the examination of such processes.

One major challenge of any police enquiry is to filter out the distortions in the collection, collation and employment of the information on which all subsequent actions rely. These distortions may be produced by poor witness recall, deliberate obfuscation and deception, professional negligence or as a product of a variety of communication problems. The contributors to the volume tackle these and many related issues.

Recent developments in our understanding of the investigative interview process are covered in a number of insightful studies by leading researchers, combining academic rigour with direct practical relevance.

The wide range of topics covered in this volume will be of value and interest to all students of crime and its investigation as well as those who have a broader interest in interviewing and the assessment of information from naturally occurring accounts. Social scientists and those psychologists concerned to develop their understanding of accounts of crime will find the volume of particular utility, as will all those in law enforcement who wish to see an improvement in these crucial aspects of all criminal investigations.

The recent explosion of research and practice relating to offending and the related investigative and legal processes makes it extremely difficult for anyone to master these emerging areas of research. This book will help readers to navigate through this rapidly expanding area of scholarship and practice by bringing together a number of recent reviews on key topics by leading experts in the field.

Contributions to the volume discuss developments in the study of interviewing and the detection of deception together with explorations of victims and offenders. The psychological background and consequences of school bullying, child sexual abuse and male rape are also explored, as are the challenges of collecting information about crimes as varied as burglary and serial killing.

This book will be a valuable resource for criminologists, crime and forensic psychologists, students of socio-legal processes and all those involved in legal and investigative activities.

The chapters in this book were originally published as review articles in Crime Psychology Review.

You can hardly open a paper or read an academic journal without some attempt to explain an aspect of human behaviour or experience by reference to neuroscience, biological or evolutionary processes. This 'biologising' has had rather a free ride until now, being generally accepted by the public at large. However, there is a growing number of scholars who are challenging the assumption that we are little more than our bodies and animal origins. This volume brings together a review of these emerging critiques expressed by an international range of senior academics from across the social sciences. Their arguments are firmly based in the empirical, scientific tradition. They show the lack of logic or evidence for many 'biologising' claims, as well as the damaging effects these biological assumptions can have on issues such as dealing with dyslexia or treating alcoholism. This important book, originally published as a special issue of Contemporary Social Science, contributes to a crucial debate on what it means to be human.

This collection of articles by David Canter and his colleagues, rigorously argued and richly informative [...] are of immense importance. It is astonishing that, as Canter puts it in his brilliant overview of biologising trends [...] there are those in the humanities who need to be reminded that human beings can talk and interact with each other, generating cultures and societies that have an existence that cannot be reduced to their mere mechanical parts.

Professor Raymond Tallis FRCP FMedSci DLitt LittD in the Preface.

In the World Library of Psychologists series, international experts present career-long collections of what they judge to be their most interesting publications - extracts from books, key articles, research findings and practical and theoretical contributions.

In this fascinating volume, Professor David Canter refl ects on a career that has earned him an international reputation as one of the U.K.'s most eminent applied social psychologists and a pioneer in the fi eld of environmental psychology, through a selection of papers that illustrate one of the foundational themes of his research career: the psychology of place. Split into four parts, each with a new introduction written by the author, the book provides insights into theories, methods and applications of place psychology. Covering a range of publications from early research in the 1960s up to recent explorations, this volume provides the unfolding research that elaborates this seminal theory, offering rich perspectives on how places gain their significance and meaning.

Featuring specially written commentary by the author contextualizing the selections and providing an intimate overview of his career, this collection of key publications offers a unique and compelling insight into decades of ground-breaking work, making it an essential resource for all those engaged or interested in the study of places.

Originally published in 1988, reissued now with a new series introduction, Environmental Perspectives was the first in a trilogy of books to open the series Ethnoscapes: Current Challenges in the Environmental Social Sciences. These three titles brought together specially commissioned contributions that cover much of the range of topics that the series as a whole would cover. Although the following volumes would not have the same format, the opening trilogy gave an overview of what was to come, while also providing a broad base for the future authors to build upon.

The first of these volumes focuses, essentially, on theory. It brings together papers covering our growing understanding of the ways in which human actions are integrated within our knowledge of the places in which those actions occur. The contributors also explore the social historical antecedents that give meaning to our everyday surroundings, as well as the psychological underpinnings to aesthetic experience.

Originally published in 1988, reissued now with a new series introduction, Environmental Policy, Assessment and Communication, was the second in a trilogy of books to open the series Ethnoscapes: Current Challenges in the Environmental Social Sciences. These three titles brought together specially commissioned contributions that cover much of the range of topics that the series as a whole would cover. Although the following volumes would not have the same format, the opening trilogy gave an overview of what was to come, while also providing a broad base for the future authors to build upon.

This volume has a practical orientation. Its contributions deal directly with research on those environmental matters on which government agencies and other organisations formulate policies or develop design strategies. This therefore covers the assessment and evaluation of designs and design proposals as well as background research to policy issues.

Originally published in 1988, reissued now with a new series introduction, New Directions in Environmental Participation was the third in a trilogy of books to open the series Ethnoscapes: Current Challenges in the Environmental Social Sciences. These three titles brought together specially commissioned contributions that cover much of the range of topics that the series as a whole would cover. Although the following volumes would not have the same format, the opening trilogy gave an overview of what was to come, while also providing a broad base for the future authors to build upon.

For this volume the editors chose to deal directly with current developments in environmental participation. This brings together contributions that range from studies of hands-on user participation to explorations on a much broader scale of the role we all play in shaping our environment. The role of communication, education and research in the participation process is a motif that is apparent throughout the contributions.