How much do we really know about crime and criminals? About the effectiveness - or otherwise- of the measures used by courts to deter, reform, or incapacitate offenders? In this critical introduction, refreshingly free of jargon or political bias, Nigel Walker tackles these and other central questions of the criminological debate. No respecter of accepted orthodoxies, he highlights the fallacies and failings of most explanations of criminal behaviour, and emphasizes the importance of rules as a determinant of human conduct, the crucial difference between rule-following and rule-breaking behaviour, and the special status of those rules that constitute the criminal and penal codes. After a comprehensive yet concise survey of the problems and their possible solutions, Nigel Walker goes on to explain the current popularity of 'just deserts' as an aim, and finally to ask whether we are leaving the war against crime, if there is indeed such a war, too much to the professionals and if we do so at our peril. Readership: criminologists, sociologists, social workers, penologists, politicians; students of those disciplines