A suitable amount of crime
Christie, Nils: En passende mengde kriminalitet
Deplorable acts exist but does crime exist? If it does, how much is too much? Crime is not a fixed concept and which acts are considered criminal varies historically and between societies. As any act can be defined as criminal, crime is theoretically in endless supply. "A Suitable Amount of Crime" looks at the great variations between countries in what are considered ‘unwanted acts’, how many are constructed as criminal and how many are punished. It describes the difference between Eastern and Western Europe and between the USA and the rest of the world. The author denounces the size of prison populations in punitive states as a threat to human values and civil forms of societies and proposes that academics and researchers have a moral obligation to highlight that alternatives exist.
This book brings together the author’s years of experience studying crime and penal systems. It is written in an involved and easily accessible style and will appeal to anyone interested in understanding contemporary problems of crime and punishment.
Praise for "A Suitable Amount of Crime":
"...reader-friendly and educational... He speaks for the outcasts, and he writes critically and wisely about what is obvious and true to most of us. A Suitable Amount of Crime sums up one of the most important authorships in Norwegian social science. That alone makes the book worth reading." (Dag og Tid)
Translations: Danish ( "En passende mængde kriminalitet" published by Hans Reitzel, Copenhagen), English ("A Suitable Amount of Crime" published by Routledge, London), German ("Wieviel Kriminalität braucht die Gesellschaft?" published by C.H. Beck, Munich), Japanese (Yushindo-Kobunsha, Tokyo), Polish ("Dogodna Ilosc prezestepstw" published by Polskie Stowarzyszenie Edukacji Prawnej, Warsaw), Russian (Aletheia, St. Petersburg in collaboration with Moscow Centre for Prison Reform), Serbian (Clio Publishing, Belgrade), Spanish ("Una sensata cantidad de delito" published by Editores Del Puerto, Buenos Aires), Swedish ("Lagom mycket kriminalitet" published by Natur och Kultur, Stockholm)
First published: 2004, Universitetsforlaget
Nils Christie: Biography and bibliography
Rights sold to
| Language | Foreign publisher |
|---|---|
| British English | Routlegde |
| Danish | Hans Reitzel |
| German | C. H. Beck |
| Italian | Cooperativa Sociale Colibri |
| Japanese | Yushindo-Kobunsha |
| Polish | PSEP, Warzawa |
| Serbian | Clio Publishing |
| Swedish | Natur och Kultur |
