Violent Criminal Acts and Actors Revisited

Download or read book Violent Criminal Acts and Actors Revisited written by Lonnie H. Athens and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rather than finding the causes of criminal behavior in external forces or personality disorders, as conventional wisdom often does, the author renews his fundamental argument that a violent situation comes into being when defined by an individual as a situation that calls for violence -- that an actor responds to the circumstance as he or she defines it. Based on the author's many firsthand interviews with offenders and on his personal experience, this book augments his call to reexamine the source and locus of violent criminal behavior.