'...a good criminology textbook...should be a well-written volume providing a wide range of reliable data and textual reference, while comprehensively engaging with the main theoretical debates. If, at the same time...[it] manages to conceptualise those theoretical debates in their wider cultural, social political and economic contexts without losing the fluidity of expositional style and vividness of example desirable in introductory ... Read moretexts, then the author might even be congratulated on producing an unusually excellent primer. Such a rare feat has been achieved by Roger Matthews in his book...The most admirable aspect...is the elegant and economic way in which Matthews provides a broad sweep of empirical data and theoretical perspectives in one small volume.' - Pat Carlen, Professor of Criminology, University of Bath Show Less