The authors bring the "person" back into criminology by focusing on understanding individual differences in criminal conduct and recognizing the importance of personal, interpersonal, and community factors. What results is a truly interdisciplinary general personality and social psychology of criminal behavior that is open to a wide variety of factors that relate to individual differences - a perspective with both theoretical and practical significance in North America and Great Britain.

The book is now organized into four parts: (1) The Theoretical Context and Knowledge Base to the Psychology of Criminal Conduct, (2) The Major Risk/Need Factors of Criminal Conduct, (3) Applications, and (4) Summary and Conclusions. Chapters include helpful Resource Notes that explain important concepts. A selection of technical notes, separated from the general text, allows the advanced student to explore complex research without distracting readers from the main points.