Epidemiological Criminology: A Public Health Approach to Crime and Violence
Epidemiological Criminology offers an introduction to the sources and methods of epidemiological criminology and shows how to apply these methods to some of the most vexing problems now confronting researchers and practitioners in public health epidemiology, criminology, and criminal justice.
The book describes, explains, and applies the newly formulated practice of epidemiological criminology, an emerging discipline that finds the intersection across theories, methods, and statistical models of public health with their corresponding tools of criminal justice and criminology. The authors show how to apply epidemiological criminology as a practical tool to address population issues of violence and crime nationally and globally. In addition, they look at future directions and the application of this emerging field in corrections, public health and law, gangs and gang violence, victimology, mental health and substance abuse, environmental justice, international human rights, and global terrorism.
For students, the book presents an exciting approach to understanding epidemiology as a means with which to tackle some of the worst problems for vulnerable populations. For researchers and policymakers, the book offers a new methodological perspective that recognizes the significance of social disparities and the built environment as factors in the formulation of public health policy, and provides a tool with which to produce more effective interventions, preventive measures, and policy formulations.
Table of Contents
Figures and Tables xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xxiii
The Authors xxix
Introduction: Crime, Criminal Justice, Health, and Victims xxxiii
Levels of Theoretical Analysis xxxiv
Why the Meso Is Important xxxvii
Revising the Epidemiological Trinity xliii
Hosts, Agents, Agency, and Behavior xlviii
Risk, Deviance, Crime, and Health l
Summary lv
PART ONE FOUNDATION FOR AN EMERGING PARADIGM: EPIDEMIOLOGICAL CRIMINOLOGY
Chapter 1 Establishing a Historical Framework for Epidemiological Criminology 3
The War on Poverty 6
The War on Crime 11
The War on Drugs 18
The War on Terror 22
Conclusion 24
Summary 24
Chapter 2 Where Two Worlds Collide: Toward an Integrated Theory of Epidemiological Criminology 27
Roots and Forks in the Road 28
History 29
Determining When or Where to Start an Investigation 31
Defining an Emerging Paradigm 35
Epidemiological Criminology 47
Conclusion 50
Summary 52
Chapter 3 The Lexicon of Terminology: Developing an Emerging Paradigm 57
Scientific and Practice Integration: Building an Emerging Paradigm 59
Theories and Models: An Integrative Paradigm 60
Theories and Models: Framing the Paradigm 64
Units of Analysis 68
Health and Crime: Biomedical and Behavioral Disparities 69
Prevention Interventions 70
Causation: The Epidemiologic Triad 72
Conclusion 73
Summary 73
PART TWO THEORIES, CONCEPTS, AND METHODS
Chapter 4 Criminology, Criminal Justice, and the Social Sciences 79
Criminology 79
Criminal Justice 80
Where Does That Leave Epidemiological Criminology? 81
Public Health 82
Lessons from the Foundation of Sociology 89
Conclusion 92
Summary 92
Chapter 5 Research Methods in Epidemiology and Criminology: A Bridge Between? 95
Surveillance or Monitoring? 96
Monitoring, Surveillance, and Epidemiological Criminology 99
Method, Technique, and Theory 100
The Evidence Base 102
In the Field and on the Streets 103
Conclusion 104
Summary 104
Chapter 6 Integrating the Interdisciplinary Sciences: Theoretical Foundations of the Epidemiological Criminology Framework 107
Criminogenics: The Evidence Base of Individual Criminal Behavior 108
Propensity Versus Typology: How Changeable Are Criminogenics? 109
Dynamic Risks 110
Implications for Public Health Interventions 113
Social Learning and Social Structure: Moving Evidence to the Next Social Levels 113
Epidemiological Criminology Implications for Public Health Interventions 118
Conclusion 121
Summary 122
PART THREE APPLYING EPIDEMIOLOGICAL CRIMINOLOGY IN PRACTICE AND POLICY
Chapter 7 Health Disparities and Epidemiological Criminology 129
Health Disparities 132
Conceptualizing Criminogenic Health Disparities 137
Conceptualizing Epidemiological Criminology and Disparities 141
Conclusion 143
Summary 144
Chapter 8 Incarceration and Epidemiological Criminology 147
The Organizational Ecology of Incarceration 149
Incarceration by Police 152
Juvenile Detention: A Snapshot 155
The Process of Incarceration 156
The Epidemiology of Incarceration: The Importance of Process 162
Criminal Records 164
Conclusion 166
Summary 166
Chapter 9 The Health of Correctional Populations 169
Competing Images: Magic Castles and Houses of Horror 169
Juvenile Detention 171
Jail 172
Health of Jail Inmates 173
Health of Prisoners 176
HIV: An Exemplar of Where One Looks and How 178
Reentry to the Community 190
Implications for Epidemiological Criminology 192
Conclusion 193
Summary 193
Chapter 10 Recidivism and Epidemiological Criminology 197
Why Measure Recidivism? 198
Defining and Measuring Recidivism 199
How Much Recidivism? 201
Who Returns to Prison? 204
Jails and Recidivism 205
Health Recidivism 206
Conclusion 208
Summary 209
Chapter 11 Gang Violence and Adolescent Membership 213
Biopsychosocial and Environmental Determinants 214
Micro–, Meso–, and Macroinfluences 218
Epidemiology of Gangs and Gang Violence 221
An Integrated Approach 226
Health Behavior and Criminal Behavior 228
Biomedical Disparities and Behavioral Disparities 230
Conclusion 232
Summary 232
Chapter 12 Criminality, Substance Abuse, and Mental Health: An Epidemiological Criminology Framework 237
Criminalization 237
Mental Illness, Crime, and Criminal Justice 239
Mental Illness and Epidemiological Criminology 243
Substance Abuse 244
Substance Abuse and Epidemiological Criminology 246
Conclusion 249
Summary 250
Chapter 13 Victims and Victimization 255
Victims and Victimology 256
The Academy Discovers Victims 258
The Role of Place: Geography and Victimization 259
Routine Activities 259
The Health Industrial Complex Discovers Victims 260
Measuring Victims 262
Violence and Epidemiological Criminology 264
Conclusion 265
Summary 266
PART FOUR FUTURE DIRECTION AND TRENDS
Chapter 14 Environmental Justice and the Epidemiology of Crime 271
What Is Environment? What Is Justice? 273
The Traditional Epidemiological Approach: What Is Missing? 275
Segregation and Health 277
Residential Segregation and Criminal Behavior 281
Environmental Justice and Epidemiological Criminology 283
Conclusion 285
Summary 285
Chapter 15 Global and Domestic Terrorism 289
Epidemiology of Terrorism 291
Epidemiological Criminology as an Integrated Paradigm 294
Biopsychosocial and Environmental Makeup of Terrorism and Terrorists 297
Micro–, Meso–, and Macroinfluences 300
Health Behavior and Criminal Behavior 302
Biomedical Disparities and Behavioral Disparities 304
Conclusion 306
Summary 306
Chapter 16 Criminal Law, Public Health Law, and the Epidemiological Criminology Framework 311
Criminal Law, Public Health Law, and Social Control 314
Whose Interests? 321
Law and Epidemiological Criminology 325
Values 326
Conclusion 330
Summary 331
Chapter 17 International Human Rights and Human Trafficking 335
What Is a Right? 335
Does the Epidemiological Criminology Framework Fit Human Rights? 338
A General Model of Trafficking 340
Trafficking Networks 343
Individual Traffickers and Individual Victims 344
Responding to Human Trafficking from an
Epidemiological Criminology Framework 347
Conclusion 348
Summary 349
References 353
Further Reading 387
Index 391
