The following list contains both fiction
and non-fiction sources that can be used to illustrate
criminological theories for an Introduction to Criminology course.
Gangs:
Monster:
The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member by Sanyika Shakur
My
Bloody Life: The Making of a Latin King by Reymundo Sanchez
Lady
Q: The Rise and Fall of a Latin Queen by Reymundo Sanchez and Sonia
Rodriguez
Gang
Cop: The World and Ways of Officer Paco Domingo by Malcolm Klein
The
Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
That
Was Then This Is Now by S.E. Hinton
Gang
Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by
Sudhir Venkatesh
In
Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio by Philippe Bourgois
Dead
End Kids: Gang Girls and the Boys They Know by Mark Fleisher
Two
Badges: The Lives of Mona Ruiz by Mona Ruiz
Always
Running La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. by Luis J. Rodriguez
True Crime:
Dead
by Sunset by Ann Rule
Small
Sacrifices by Ann Rule
The
Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule
In
Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Helter
Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry
Our
Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret Life of the Perfect Suburb
by Bernard Lefkowitz
Shot
in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore
The Good-Bye Door: The True Story of America's First Female
Serial Killer to Die in the Chair by Diana Britt Franklin
Final
Truth: The Autobiography of a Serial Killer by Donald Gaskins and
Wilton Earle
A
Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun: The Autobiography of a Career Criminal
by Razor Smith
Domestic Violence:
Black
and Blue by Anna Quindlen
Criminal Justice Process:
The
Appeal by John Grisham
Race, Class & Crime:
Makes
Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America by Nathan McCall
Brothers
and Keepers: A Memoir by John Edgar Wideman
There
are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing up in the Other
America by Alex Kotlowitz
Locas:
A Novel by Yxta Maya Murray
Code
of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City
by Elijah Anderson
Manchild
in the Promised Land by Claude Brown
Native
Son by Richard Wright
American
Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser and Thomas Riggio
Life in Poverty:
Random
Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx by
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
Crime
and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Cycle of Violence:
Proclivity
by Bonnie L. Kern
Not
Monsters: Analyzing the Stories of Child Molesters by Pamela D.
Schultz
Prison Life & Incarceration:
No
Safe Haven: Stories of Women in Prison by Lori B. Girshick
Victimization:
Bastard
out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
Addiction:
Christiane
F. Autobiography of a Girl of the Streets and Heroin Addict
translated by Susanne Flatauer
Basketball
Diaries by Jim Carroll
Deviance:
Fight
Club by Chuck Palahniuk
A
Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Delinquency:
The
Jack Roller by Clifford Shaw
Gender Issues:
The
Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Mental Illness:
Crazy
in America: The Hidden Tragedy of our Criminalized Mentally Ill by
Mary Beth Pfeiffer
