Analysts have long noted that some societies have much higher rates of criminal violence than others. They have also observed that the risk of being a victim or a perpetrator of violent crime varies considerably from one individual to another. In societies with ethnically and racially diverse populations, some ethnic and racial groups have been reported to have higher rates of violent offending and victimization than other groups. This exceptional collection of original essays explores the extent and causes of racial and ethnic differences in violent crime in the United States and several other contemporary societies, including Canada, New Zealand, and England. The authors critically examine the credibility of the evidence of group differences in rates of violent crime and debate the merits of many of the popular theories that have been put forth to explain them.

'Violent Crime: Assessing Race and Ethnic Differences is an extremely interesting collection of articles … This collection constitutes an entertaining treatment of the problem of violent crime in relation to ethnic groups … The review of the research is very rich and will certainly save the researchers with similar interests a great deal of time. Moreover, this collection provides a significant number of cutting-edge, original research studies … will move debating about ethnic/'racial' differences in violent crime forward. This collection will be a standard work for the academic and the researcher of 'race', ethnicity, crime and justice. However, it is to policy makers that I highly recommend this book.'

Source: Sociology