I just want to give everyone a heads-up: though I still don’t have an ETA for the Sarno book, I have something new that was just published: I’ve written the chapter on gambling in the first volume of SAGE Publication’s Key Issues in Crime and Punishment series, Crime and Criminal Behavior. Here’s the cite:
William Chambliss, general editor. Crime and Criminal Behavior. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, 2011. 344 pages.
It’s not a particularly long chapter, but it’s a pretty good distillation of history of legal and illegal gambling in the United States and arguments for and against the legalization of gambling. I’m as happy about this as anything else I’ve published lately. It’s a different genre from my writing for popular media, but one that I still enjoy working in.
If you’ve got $80 burning a hole in your pocket and want to know more about a whole gamut of criminological behaviors, I suggest you get yourself a copy.
Seeing as that’s not incredibly likely, I’d make the more realistic request that, if you are affiliated with a college or university, you suggest that your library acquire the series.
Here’s a brief description of the book:
Crime and Criminal Behavior delves into such hotly debated topics as age of consent, euthanasia and assisted suicide, gambling, guns, internet pornography, marijuana and other drug laws, religious convictions, and terrorism and extremism. From using a faking I.D. to assaulting one’s domestic partner to driving drunk, a vast array of behaviors fit into the definition of criminal. The authors of these 20 chapters examine the historical contexts of each topic and offer arguments both for and against the ways in which legislators and courts have defined and responded to criminal behaviors, addressing the sometimes complex policy considerations involved. Sensitive subjects such as hate crimes are addressed, as are crimes carried out by large groups or states, including war crime and corporate crime. This volume also considers crimes that are difficult to prosecute, such as Internet crime and intellectual property crime, and crimes about which there is disagreement as to whether the behavior harms society or the individual involved (gun control and euthanasia, for example).
Like I said, this probably won’t be flying off the shelves for home reading, but I think it would make an ideal addition to any college/university library.