Written by an internationally renowned authority in the field, the founder of the highly regarded School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University, the book draws heavily on research done on three Continents: North America, Europe and Australia, to trace the discipline's historical evolution, its current problems, disappointing achievements, and promising trends. It concludes with a prospective look at the future of criminology and criminology of the future. Although the perspective is critical, the author's critique is constructive and he expresses a healthy optimism about the discipline's future and offers several guidelines as to how current deficiencies could be remedied and present gaps could be addressed.