Homicide: A Sociological Explanation [Hardcover]

The book is well written, well referenced, and adequately indexed. Recommended.Beeghley's book provides an impressive sociological understanding of murder.Homocide: A Sociological Explanation is an ideal text for sociology and criminology graduate students because it offers a comprehensive review of U.S. homicide through a critical lens. The material is challenging, and Beeghley's research is thorough.With skillful use of analogies and an engaging writing style, Leonard Beeghley has written a book on the sociology of homicide that is highly accessible to the general public. The arguments are well reasoned and located skillfully in the scholarly literature. A first rate book.Echoing Durkheim's Suicide, this book focuses on one important phenomenon to explain larger currents in American society. Leonard Beeghley examines the historical and cross-national dimensions of homicides and evaluates previous attempts to explain it. He finds the sources of America's murder rate in the greater availability of guns, the expansion of illegal drug markets, greater racial discrimination, more exposure to violence, and sharper economic inequalities. He deftly blends the evidence related to each of these factors into a well-reasoned sociological analysis of the nature of American society.The American homicide rate remains dramatically higher than that in other Western nations. News of a murder has become a routine event. How do we explain such high levels of lethal violence in the world's leading democracy? Echoing Durkheim's Suicide, this book focuses on one important phenomenon to explain larger currents in American society. Leonard Beeghley examines the historical and cross-national dimensions of homicides and evaluates previous attempts to explain it. He finds the sources of America's murder rate in the greater availability of guns, the expansion of illegal drug markets, greater racial discrimination, more exposure to violence, and sharper economic inequalities. He deftly blendl³'