Great Pretenders: Pursuits and Careers of Persistent Thieves by Neal Shover - Book Report/Review Example

The goal of the book was likewise concentrated on providing a theoretical account of the phenomenon, applying both the ‘crime-as-choice framework’ and the ‘life-course perspective’ with due reference to the autobiographies of over 50 persistent thieves and scholarly sources. Raising questions on the critical effects of the correctional measures adopted by the American government, the purpose of Neal Shover, in writing the book, was to identify the loop holes persistent in these strategies adopted, and the driving forces that influence persistent thieves to recommence their offences.

The book presents certain key factors that often remain unnoticed by governmental bodies, mostly at the psychological level. It directly relates with the reasons of failure witnessed by the authorities in America to combat these issues and hence, based on practical illustrations, the inferences drawn in the book shall be significant assistance in applying effective measures when dealing with persistent criminals. As stated above, Shover used a qualitative research method to obtain relevant and valuable data for his book, wherein autobiographies of over 50 persistent thieves were considered as primary sources of information and ‘crime-as-choice framework’ and the ‘life-course perspective’ as the conceptual models to evaluate the obtained data.

As apparent, Shover used a macro-level approach to document his findings through the research. Correspondingly, the variables considered by Shover included crime-control policies, payoffs of crime, criminal opportunities persistent within the American society and other demographic as well as psychological factors responsible for the issue. As these variables, depict a direct influence on the current trends of crime, these are certainly relevant to the sociological theories of crime mostly used today by the theorists.

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