But the mix of organizational and economic incentives is a more provocative and potentially valuable framework than attributing corporate crime to evil executives, subcultures of deviance, or other explanations borrowed from traditional criminology. Of the three odd chapters, two are of little value. Robert Nash Parker offers some preliminary thinking about how the association between alcohol and homicide might mesh with four theoretical perspectives on crime causation. Theory-based research on homicide is not well developed, and Parker's failure to provide any new insights is disappointing. A contribution by David Weisburd, Lisa Maher, Lawrence Sherman, and associates is interesting, but not at all suitable for this volume.
Results are inconclusive.
Jeffrey Fagan's chapter on social control of spousal assault is valuable for two reasons. First, his review serves as an excel- lent introduction to the large and growing literature on domestic violence, a topic that has attracted no small number of ideologues. Although Fagan has his own agenda, he does a nice job of synthesizing this literature. Second, there is a subtle but incisive commentary on the initial promise but eventual failure of arrest as a routine, rather than discretionary, response to domestic violence. Fagan's discussion of experimental studies and replications is especially worthwhile in pointing out a fundamental, but too often ignored, flaw in field experimentation.