The way we see and understand crime falls into two types of story that, in essence, have been told and retold many times throughout human history - in fiction, as in fact. Criminality is either a selfish choice, an aberration; or a forced choice, the product of social factors. These two stories continue to dominate both our views of and responses to crime. And, says Tom Gash, they are completely wrong.

In seeking to dispel the myths that surround and inform our views of crime, Criminal argues that our obsession with 'big arguments' about crime's causes can lead us to mistake individual cases as proof of universal rules. How, he asks, can we suspend our knee-jerk reactions, and begin to understand crime for what it is: as a risk that can be managed and reduced.