In Their Own Words: Criminals on Crime

In Their Own Words is a collection of ethnographic or field accounts of crime and criminals, providing a rare opportunity for students to view the world from the perspective of offenders. Few students ever encounter a real criminal during their education, and this anthology is designed to provide an accessible look at the criminal mind. Brief introductions precede each reading, providing internal cohesiveness and structure to the book.

In this reader, students will encounter gang members, burglars, shoplifters, pimps, prostitutes, killers, robbers, fences, addicts, rapists, drug smugglers, and white-collar offenders--all of whom discuss their motives, perceptions, decision-making strategies, and rationalizations for crime. In each article, the researcher places the offenders' words into a theoretical context and then provides analyses and conclusions.

The fourth edition features fourteen new articles, which explore the following topics:

* Why inmates consent to interviews
* The motivations and antecedents of armed robbery
* Street life and the rewards of auto theft
* The dynamics underlying a decision to commit a burglary
* The planning, enactment, and aftermath of carjacking events
* The lifestyles and motivations of illegal telemarketers
* Serial killers and FBI profilers discuss the planning and act of sexual homicide
* The various avenues burglars use to dispose of stolen property
* Collective and normative features of gang crime
* Gender and victimization risk among young women in gangs
* Drug trafficking from the dealer's perspective
* Risks and pressures on middle-class cocaine sellers
* Analyzing the factors for desisting from crime
* The motivations for quitting marijuana use