Customer Reviews

Race, Ethnicity, Sexual Orientation, Violent Crime: The Realities and the Myths (Monograph Published Simultaneously As the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 1/2)

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People are people and no one really wants to say, "X race does this and Y race does that." However, researchers aren't really doing their job if they don't investigate every question that humans can present. I once read a report that among high school students, whites smoke more cigarettes than Blacks and Blacks get into physical fights more than whites. Maybe that's not a diss against either groups; maybe Black schools need to prioritize addressing violence and white schools need to focus on the danger of nicotine. One wouldn't be able to set objectives without those studies. So this book admirably touches upon topis rightfully deemed controversial.
However, there is a way in which this book could have been comparing Smurfs vs. Snorks, freshwater crocs vs. saltwater ones, "All My Children" fans vs. "Young and the Restless" ones. This was dull, statistical, criminological research that could have just been about Generic Group A vs. Generic Group B. I thought this book might be a great way to learn more about the lives and cultures of African Americans, indigenous peoples, and the LGB community. This book is just dull, dull, dull and only a hardcore numbers-cruncher would embrace it.
The title and table of contents looks quite diverse. However, there are just token chapters on Aussie Aboriginals, First Nations Canadians, and gays. Now that the Supreme Court reversed "Bowers v. Hardwick" through "Lawrence v. Texas," the last chapter is actually out-of-date and obsolete.
I hope the chapter writers got a cool free trip to the US to discuss their work at a conference or something, but there's no way that I can rave about this book. The press eats up pages by having abstracts and keyword sections. That's good for a college student who wants to cut corners on his homework, but it sure does just eat up pages and kill trees. I read most of this waiting for the Pet Shop Boys to start their concert. It's a really flimsy text.
Something that I thought would be exciting just made me yawn.