College of Criminology and Criminal Justice Dean Thomas Blomberg has written a book titled, “Delinquency and Drift Revisited, Volume 21: The Criminology of David Matza and Beyond.” The purpose of the book edited by Dr. Blomberg along with Francis T. Cullen (University of Cincinnati), Christoffer Carlsson (Stockholm University, Sweden), and Cheryl Lero Jonson (Xavier University) is to show how the ideas presented in David Matza’s original work remain relevant to criminology today. The book addresses the pertinence of Matza’s original work – encouraging scholars to continue to question conventional wisdom, to pay attention to realities they have overlooked, and to inspire researchers to theorize more innovatively.
Matza wrote “Delinquency and Drift” fifty years ago to challenge the ways people thought about the development of criminals. Today, “Delinquency and Drift Revisited” reminds criminologists that they ignore Matza’s writings at their own intellectual peril.
Dr. Blomberg and his coauthors reiterate Matza’s insights on a range of core criminological issues, such as: the complex nature of culture and its connection to criminality; the extent to which rule-breakers are truly different from the “rest of us”; the importance of focusing on human agency in understanding the subjective side of offending; the interaction of propensity and peer influences in criminal involvement; the role of the state in signifying individuals as deviant and entrapping them in criminal roles; and the processes that lead offenders to desist from crime.
“Delinquency and Drift Revisited” is Dr. Blomberg’s tenth book. He has also written:
- “Advancing Criminology and Criminal Justice Policy” (2016)
- “American Penology: A History of Control, Enlarged Second Edition” (2010)
- “Punishment and Social Control: Essays in Honor of Sheldon L. Messinger, Enlarged Second Edition” (2003)
- “Data-Driven Juvenile Justice Education” (2001)
- “American Penology: A History of Control” (2000)
- “Punishment and Social Control: Essays in Honor of Sheldon L. Messinger” (1995)
- “Juvenile Court and Community Corrections” (1985)
- “Courts and Diversion: Policy and Operations Studies” (1979)
- “Social Control and the Proliferation of Juvenile Court Services” (1978)