This book will introduce the field of forensic semiotics as a tool for understanding crime and criminality. It will focus on how symbolism, ritual, and other sign-based activities play a crucial role in the constitution of criminal organizations and often in the enactment of individual crimes. It will present semiotic notions, methods, and techniques that can be applied to forensic science, such as the role of ritual and slang in criminal gangs.

Cites successful examples of community-based policing.

From the UK's leading criminologist comes the true story of Margaret McLaughlin, and the man he believes was fitted up for her murder 'Enthralling ... will leave true crime readers with more to ponder than they bargained for' - The Herald Before David Wilson became the UK's pre-eminent criminologist, he was just a young boy growing up in the Scottish town of Carluke. When he was a child, the brutal murder of a young woman rocked this small community, but very quickly a man was arrested for the crime, convicted and put behind bars. For most, life slowly carried on - case closed. But there were whispers in the town that the wrong man was imprisoned. Over the years, these whispers grew louder, to the point that any time David would visit, he'd be asked in hushed tones, 'What are you going to do about the Carluke Case?' Carluke believed the real killer had evaded justice. A murderer was still on the loose. Forty years later, it's time for David to return home, and find out the truth.

Contributors to this volume present and discuss new data which suggest that major mental disorder substantially increases the risk of violent crime. These findings come at a crucial time, since those who suffer from mental disorders are increasingly living in the community, rather than in institutions. The book describes the magnitude and complexity of the problem and offers hope that humane, effective intervention can prevent violent crime being committed by the seriously mentally disordered.

This is a guide to recommended practices for crime scene investigation. The guide is presented in five major sections, with sub-sections as noted: (1) Arriving at the Scene: Initial Response/Prioritization of Efforts (receipt of information, safety procedures, emergency care, secure and control persons at the scene, boundaries, turn over control of the scene and brief investigator/s in charge, document actions and observations); (2) Preliminary Documentation and Evaluation of the Scene (scene assessment, "walk-through" and initial documentation); (3) Processing the Scene (team composition, contamination control, documentation and prioritize, collect, preserve, inventory, package, transport, and submit evidence); (4) Completing and Recording the Crime Scene Investigation (establish debriefing team, perform final survey, document the scene); and (5) Crime Scene Equipment (initial responding officers, investigator/evidence technician, evidence collection kits).

This book offers an original and challenging reading of the crimino-legal complex' - criminology, criminal justice, criminal law, the media and everyday experiences - in the light of cultural studies and feminist theory. Through an exploration of the crisis engendered by the failure of the crimino-legal complex to solve the problems of crime and criminality, Alison Young exposes the cultural dimension of its institutions and practices. She analyzes the far-reaching effects of the cultural value given to crime, showing it to be rooted in a powerful nexus of the body, language, the community and everyday life. Imagining Crime examines a number of key events and issues which have signalled shifts in the representation of crime. These include: criminology's resistance to feminist intervention; the pleasures of reading detective fiction; ambiguities of victimization and social justice in the city; sacrificial structures in the law's response to conjugal homicide; policing the ethnicity of the illegal' immigrant; defensive responses to the limits of representation in the Bulger affair; the governmental strategies of campaigns against single mothers; and the fatalism of the spectacle of HIV/AIDS in criminal justice policy.