Epidemiological Criminology: A Public Health Approach to Crime and Violence

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.