The Psychopathology of Crime : Criminal Behavior as a Clinical Disorder

Rating:
Summary: An Extremely Astute and Excellent Book
Review: This book serves two purposes. It is an excellent literature review of research into the biological, neurochemical, genetic, and behavioral roots of violence and criminality. It also advances a provocative hypothesis -- that criminality itself may meet the definition of a psychopathology.

Even if you regard the latter as completely bunk (which I don't), the book is invaluable as a literature review. Not only is it exhaustive, but Raine also comments on the literature with a keen logical mind, i.e. "Hungadunga and McCormick found effect X and attributed it to factor Y, but an alternative explanation is provided by factor Z."

I am a science writer, and my main field of expertise is the medical aspects substance abuse treatment. I learned plenty of new stuff about the connections between alcoholism and criminal behavior in this book and will consult it repeatedly the next time my partner and I sit down to write/revise.

Quibbles? Well, to some degree, the literature review works at cross-purposes with his central hypothesis, since most of the resarch he reviews was not undertaken with such a hypothesis in mind and doesn't necessarily apply to it. Also, you do have to pay close attention re: whether Raine is, at any given point, talking about criminality in general, violent criminality in particular, or ASP (antisocial personality) specifically. Structurally, it might have made more sense to write two books: a critical review of the literature, and a second one advancing the thesis that criminality is a psychopathogy. I've faced similar dilemmas in my own writing, and I probably would have made the same decision Raine did -- cram it all in one book!

Bottom line: if you're interested enough in this subject to have read to the bottom of this review, you need to buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: An Extremely Astute and Excellent Book
Review: This book serves two purposes. It is an excellent literature review of research into the biological, neurochemical, genetic, and behavioral roots of violence and criminality. It also advances a provocative hypothesis -- that criminality itself may meet the definition of a psychopathology.

Even if you regard the latter as completely bunk (which I don't), the book is invaluable as a literature review. Not only is it exhaustive, but Raine also comments on the literature with a keen logical mind, i.e. "Hungadunga and McCormick found effect X and attributed it to factor Y, but an alternative explanation is provided by factor Z."

I am a science writer, and my main field of expertise is the medical aspects substance abuse treatment. I learned plenty of new stuff about the connections between alcoholism and criminal behavior in this book and will consult it repeatedly the next time my partner and I sit down to write/revise.

Quibbles? Well, to some degree, the literature review works at cross-purposes with his central hypothesis, since most of the resarch he reviews was not undertaken with such a hypothesis in mind and doesn't necessarily apply to it. Also, you do have to pay close attention re: whether Raine is, at any given point, talking about criminality in general, violent criminality in particular, or ASP (antisocial personality) specifically. Structurally, it might have made more sense to write two books: a critical review of the literature, and a second one advancing the thesis that criminality is a psychopathogy. I've faced similar dilemmas in my own writing, and I probably would have made the same decision Raine did -- cram it all in one book!

Bottom line: if you're interested enough in this subject to have read to the bottom of this review, you need to buy this book.