Designed for undergraduate criminology courses, this book actively involves students in the literature of the discipline, presents the filed in a format that is accessible, understandable, and enjoyable, and is edited by well-known scholars who are experienced researchers and teachers. The readings in this anthology have been very carefully edited and pruned by the editors so that undergraduate students can easily read them without getting bogged down or confused and lost in the technical, methodological details.

As an added bonus and without adding additional cost to the book five substantial data analysis exercises are spread throughout the book. These exercises not only teach students the basics of SPSS, the standard data analysis software in social science, but also show them how they can test the crime theories and propositions covered in the reader, using current crime data packaged with the book. This absolutely unique feature is structured into fill-in-the blank exercise sets that are easy to grade for large numbers of students by a single instructor.

Over 150 questions have been put together for the readings so that instructors can easily test, even in large courses, whether or not their students are keeping up with the reading.