Goudy, Willis. 2008. Iowa's Numbers: 150 Years of Decennial Census Data with a Glance to the Future. Iowa State.

"The book contains information on counties, incorporated places, and rural and urban dimensions of the population," said Goudy. "There is a chapter on households and families as well as data on aging, race and ethnicity, education, occupation, income, disability and housing."

Some trends noted are well known, such as the continuing influence of the baby boom on the state's population, especially now that boomers are beginning to retire.

Press Release

DeLisi, Matt. 2008. Criminal Justice: Balancing Crime Control and Due Process, 2nd edition. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.

Kendall Hunt Book Listing

DeLisi, Matt and Peter J. Conis (Eds.). 2008. Violent Offenders: Theory, Research, Public Policy, and Practice. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett.

Violent Offenders: Theory, Research, Public Policy, and Practice provides the latest information to help students understand the many different types of violent offenders we hear about in the media daily, from homicide and sex offenders to financial predators and street criminals to serial killers and career criminals. The authors have compiled original scholarship from an international collection of applied and academic criminologists to provide students with a realistic and cutting-edge view of why people commit violent crimes and how our criminal justice system, as a whole, responds to these offenders and these violent acts.

Jones and Bartlett Book Listing

Flora, C.B. and J.L.  Flora. 2008. Rural Communities: Legacy and Change. (3rd Edition) Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

This thoroughly revised edition of Rural Communities focuses on various capitals in rural areas-natural, cultural, human, social, political, financial, and built. This integrative approach provides students with a framework for understanding rural society based on the concepts and explanations of social science. Issues covered include racial and cultural diversity; globalization and rural communities; the central role of communities in organizing a sustainable future; and building community in the context of ubiquitous change. Updates to the third edition include a new chapter on governance, as well as new material on increasing tensions over international immigration, the differential impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on rural communities, and the rural impacts of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the south.

Westview Book Listing

Roberts, Carl W. 2008. “The” Fifth Modality: On Languages that Shape Our Motivations and Cultures. Leiden, NL: Brill Publishers (in press).

This is a book about how people understand each other. Like Simmel’s writings and works written by Foucault and Goffman toward the ends of their careers, this book depicts interactions as behavioral forms. Its novelty is that it grounds these forms in linguistic structure, particularly in the ubiquitous presence of modality in discourse within all mass societies. Its concluding argument is that all persons, situations, and cultures have mutual significance in accordance with four fundamental modal forms: ability (most common in the United States), necessity (most common in the socialist countries of Western Europe and Scandinavia), obligation (most common in ancient Chinese and Indic societies), and permission (most common in the Islamic world).

Brill Book Listing

DeLisi, Matt, Robert M. Regoli, John D. Hewitt. 2007. Delinquency in Society: Youth Crime in the 21st Century. McGraw-Hill

Delinquency in Society provides a critical look at a very serious problem through a clear and thorough presentation of the theories of delinquency. In accessible, student-friendly language the authors prepare their readers to understand all facets of delinquency, including the history, institutional context, and societal reactions to delinquent behavior, the major biological, psychological, and sociological theories of behavior, and the variety of policy implications derived from those theories.

McGraw Hill Book Listing

Fontana, Andrea and Anastasia H. Prokos. 2007. The Interview: From Formal to Postmodern. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.

Used by everyone from survey researchers to oral historians, the interview may be the most basic and essential field method in the qualitative researcher’s toolkit. In this concise, student-friendly guide, Fontana and Prokos give a cogent introduction to the history, types, and methods of interviewing in the social sciences. They outline the range of ways in which interviews are conducted, both structured and unstructured, then provide instruction on conducting and interpreting interviews, and address ethical considerations in eliciting information from people. The authors also point to recent and future trends that will affect the use of this method. For researchers who need a primer and for students in methods courses or assigned fieldwork projects in other courses across the social sciences, this short, inexpensive volume is ideal.

Left Coast Press Book Listing

Stewart, Susan. 2007. Brave new stepfamilies: Diverse paths toward stepfamily living. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Brave New Stepfamilies maps the changing landscape of American stepfamilies, taking readers on a tour through the diverse assortment of traditional and not-so-traditional stepfamily forms that have emerged in recent years. Author Susan D. Stewart presents the latest scholarly research on stepfamilies in an accessible way, weaving together predominant theoretical perspectives, findings from research and national surveys, and interviews with stepfamily members.Key Features:Investigates the social and demographic trends that have irrevocably altered stepfamily life: While most books on stepfamilies focus on divorce and remarriage, this book examines recent trends, such as couples having children and living together outside of marriage, parents sharing custody of children, gay marriage, the aging population, and increasing racial and ethnic diversity, that provide multiple pathways to stepfamily formation.

Book listing

Bystydzienski, Jill, and Sharon R. Bird (eds.). 2006. Removing Barriers: Women in Academic Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics Careers. Edited book, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN).

"This book reviews current barriers to opportunities for participation in the sciences and discusses how academia can address possible solutions, important for academic deans to consider when hiring new faculty. . . . For women's studies and academic departments interested in diversifying their academic units in STEM areas. An excellent, thoughtprovoking read. . . . Highly recommended."Choice

Indiana University Press Book Listing
Review: Henry Etzkowitz
Review: Jolene Kay Jesse

DeLisi, Matt. 2006. Criminal Justice: Balancing Crime Control and Due Process. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.

Kendall Hunt Book Listing

Shover, Neal and Andy Hochstetler. 2006. Choosing White-Collar Crime. Cambridge University Press.

This systematic application of rational-choice theory to white-collar crime problems distinguishes ordinary and upperworld white-collar crime and presents reasons theoretically for believing that both have increased substantially over time. Reasons for the increase include the growing supply of white-collar lure and non-credible oversight. The book argues that measures and approaches used in the war on street crime have greater promise for reducing white-collar crime. Concluding with reasons for believing that problems of white-collar crime will continue unchecked in the increasingly global economy, it calls for strengthened citizen movements to rein in the increases.

Cambridge Book Listing

DeLisi, Matt. 2005. Career Criminals in Society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Career Criminals in Society examines the small but dangerous group of repeat offenders who are most damaging to society. The book encourages readers to think critically about the causes of criminal behavior and the potential of the criminal justice system to reduce crime. Author Matt DeLisi draws upon his own practitioner experience, interviewing criminal defendants to argue that career criminals can be combated only with a combination of prevention efforts and retributive criminal justice system policies.

Sage Publication Book Listing
Review: Hannah Griffith
Review: Jeffrey T. Ulmer, Pennsylvania State University

Krier, Dan. 2005. Speculative Management: Stock Market Power and CorporateChange. State University of New York Press: New York. Volume in the SUNYPress Series in the Sociology of Work and Organizations, Richard Hall series editor.

Book Listing

Flora, Cornelia and Jan L. Flora, with Susan Fey. Rural Communities: Legacy and Change. Second Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2004.

Glasgow, N., L. W. Morton, and N. Johnson (eds). 2004. Critical Issues in Rural Health. UK: Blackwell Publishing Co.

The first text of its kind, Critical Issues in Rural Health, provides comprehensive sociological study of rural health and health care trends in the United States, by examining the health and well-being of rural populations at all stages of life. Editors Glasgow, Morton, and Johnson present integrative reviews of theory and research on rural health issues, with the most up-to-date statistics of empirical research. This informative and groundbreaking text goes beyond the scope of previous studies and emphasizes differences between rural and urban areas in health and health care. Surprisingly little research has examined the differences in disability and morality rates by residence or degree of rurality-this book does. In additon, contributing authors report on the impact of age or life stage, race and ethnicity, social class, rural occupations, and community structure on various health issues.

Blackwell Publishing Book Listing