The third edition of this thought-provoking text addresses the following questions about crime: * Who are the offenders and victims? * What are the major motivators of crime? * Are most offenders specialists or generalists? * Are most offenders planners or opportunists? * What are their criminal histories? * How often are co-offenders involved? * What are the common features of dangerous places, times, and situational dynamics? * How effective are current crime prevention strategies?

Crime Profiles provides a descriptive summary of seven major forms of crime: homicide and aggravated assault, sexual assault, robbery, burglary, motor vehicle theft, occupational and organizational crime, and public order crimes.

The new edition provides an extensive update of the material in each chapter. Each chapter now includes national crime reports and national victimization surveys for 2003, the most recently available data. A new chapter has been added on theories of crime. New examples are also used to illustrate both change and stability in the type of situations in which particular crimes occur. Each chapter focuses on crime definitions, trends in their occurrence, the offender and victim profiles, situational elements and circumstances, particular subsets of crime syndromes, prevention, and intervention strategies.