When Crime and Personality was first published in 1964, J.A.C. Brown, writing in the New Statesman, commented: 'There can be no doubt of the importance of Professor Eysenck's book on the nature and treatment of criminal behaviour.' This third edition originally published in 1977 had been completely revised and brought up to date, and although the major theory linking personality and crime has been retained, many of the details have been changed in conformity with recent research of the time. The book presents a theory concerning the personality of criminals, and offers evidence to show that these personality features characterising criminals are based on genetic foundations. It is argued that criminality as a whole is not exclusively based on environmental factors as has so often been suggested, but has a strong biological basis. A good deal of evidence is reviewed showing that there are many data supporting this view, from studies of identical and fraternal twins, adopted children, and comparisons between criminals and non-criminals both in the Western world and in Communist countries. Professor Eysenck suggests that important consequences follow from such an attempt to redress the one-sided emphasis on environmental factors which had been so characteristic of the previous fifty years, and some of these consequences are described in detail. He further suggests that only proper understanding of the psychological factors making for antisocial behaviour will help in reversing the increasing burden that criminality places upon society. The book also takes issue with political arguments of the time regarding the origins of criminality, and shows that criminals behind the Iron Curtain show the same personality characteristics as do criminals in Western countries.

Expands psychological and some biological theories of the origins of crime, its varieties, and to effects of social and legal responses to it. Based primarily on previous statistical studies. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

The Criminal Personality presents a detailed description of criminal thinking and action patterns and convincingly argues that these patterns cannot be explained by sociologic or psychologic explanations alone. A Jason Aronson Book

The author's endeavor is to deconstruct important influences the American dream has on individuals' personality. In the American social structure, there exists a conflict between legitimate and illegitimate means of goal achievement. The design of social structure indicates the manner in which institutions within the society exhibit predictable patterns of behavior those individuals depend on in daily social interaction. Secondly, criminal personality emerges from a social structure that exerts pressure on certain individuals to achieve the American dream. Moreover, he examines how individuals shift from one class status to another within the social structure because of the pressure to achieve success. Finally, he displays a comprehensive model of adaptation that illustrates, explains, and classifies where individuals fit in the continuum of adopting cultural values and suggests several strategies societies can use to decrease criminal personality.

A good introduction to crime types and criminology to provide students with a grounding to the start of their studies.

This is the first book to overtly consider how basic evolutionary thinking is being applied to a wide range of special social, economic, and technical problems. It draws together a collection of renowned academics from a very disparate set of fields, whose common interest lies in using evolutionary thinking to inform their research.

Originally published in 1988, this second edition of The Construction of Personality has been substantially revised and updated. The author provides an introduction to current theory and research in the psychology of personality at the time and examines this work from the perspective of constructivism. As a consequence of this constructivist approach, the book covers topics from social psychology (e.g. person perception, impression formation) as well as more conventional areas of personality. In this new edition the constructivist perspective is emphasized by the addition of a new chapter in which the constructivist approach to personality is presented, and the chapters on the lay and self perspectives have been extensively re-written. All the other chapters have been revised to include recent material.

Debate about "self," "person," or "individuality" has come to be recognized as a crisis of modern times. Since it is our fashion to call problems that are either poorly formulated or inadequately resolved by empirical investigation "philosophic," a would-be "science of personality" may be labelled philosophic, though they could as easily be called logical or empirical.

Research on personality psychology is making important contributions to psychological science and applied psychology. This second edition of The Cambridge Handbook of Personality Psychology offers a one-stop resource for scientific personality psychology. It summarizes cutting-edge personality research in all its forms, including genetics, psychometrics, social-cognitive psychology, and real-world expressions, with informative and lively chapters that also highlight some areas of controversy. The team of renowned international authors, led by two esteemed editors, ensures a wide range of theoretical perspectives. Each research area is discussed in terms of scientific foundations, main theories and findings, and future directions for research. The handbook also features advances in technology, such as molecular genetics and functional neuroimaging, as well as contemporary statistical approaches. An invaluable aid to understanding the central role played by personality in psychology, it will appeal to students, researchers, and practitioners in psychology, behavioral neuroscience, and the social sciences.

This key work exposes international studies from leading social sciences researchers who use various theoretical perspectives and methodological orientations to depict deviant drug and crime-related pathways. The chapters have been grouped into four sections. The first section, Deviance, Set and Setting, discusses a new basis for the understanding of deviant pathways. The second section, Youth, Drug and Delinquency Pathways, presents empirical studies which help to understand the drug-crime relationship. The third section discusses Adult, Drug and Crime Pathways adopted by drug users, flexers , traders or dealers, and traffickers. Finally, the fourth section, Ways Out of deviant pathways, explores approaches for controlling drug use and criminality socially or individually, with or without legal intervention or formal help. In short, this book presents an invaluable overview of the most advanced research in the field of deviant drug-and crime-related pathways.