Abstract
Heith Copes and Mark Pogrebin, two of the leading scholars of qualitative research in criminal justice, have produced an innovative edited textbook/reader, aimed at the undergraduate student of criminal justice, which brings the real-life experience of practitioners in the criminal justice field and makes it relevant to the student. Traditional textbooks do an excellent job of presenting information about police, courts, and corrections, but they often fall short of providing any insight into the day-to-day lived experiences of police officers, attorneys, and correctional officers. This book successfully corrects this deficiency, giving the student some understanding of the realities of working in the criminal justice field. The book, however, does not simply stop there, but pushes our understanding of the vagaries of life in the criminal justice system, by exploring how those outside of the system perceive the police, judicial, and corrections practitioners, through their lived experiences as well.
Copes and Pogrebin explain that the concept of the book arose from their discussion about the value of ethnographic research for conveying the lived experience of people both in and out of the criminal justice system. They realized that most students of criminal justice have a limited exposure to the realities of working in the field, and often little notion of what police, judicial, and correctional practitioners do from day to day. Still further, they also faced the reality that many students often have misguided notions, either arising from the media, both real and fictitious, as well as other people’s perceptions, about these jobs. When students enroll in criminal justice courses, what they often receive is more factual-based information about the institutions of police, courts, and corrections, but not necessarily an understanding of the realities of working in these occupations. Their solution was this book, and they had several goals in mind for what it should do.
The first goal was to provide students with “a richer, more realistic understanding of the lived experiences of those who work in the criminal justice system and those who find themselves in the system in roles (i.e., citizens, victims, or offenders).” They handily accomplish this, for the book is divided into three sections, police, judicial, and corrections, and is further subdivided into articles regarding the practitioners and articles covering these outsiders. In both cases, the number of articles is nicely balanced by five articles for practitioners and five articles for the outsiders, for a total of 30 articles. Each of these articles, then, is a qualitative study derived from ethnographic and/or fieldwork methodologies, conducted by the leading researchers in the field of qualitative criminal justice research. They are examples of high-quality ethnographic research which incorporate the words of the practitioners and outsiders themselves, thus bringing to life the voices of those who work in or come into contact with the criminal justice system. It is these quotes from the field that make qualitative research so engaging, and it is also what will make this book so relevant to the student of criminal justice.
The second goal the editors laid out for themselves was to move beyond the content of each of the articles using a critical thinking perspective in order that students do not limit themselves to thinking about the experiences of the practitioners and outsiders, but to push further by thinking about the functions of the criminal justice system and its impact upon our society as a whole. The editors do this through a very simple “critical thinking” box at the end of each article, that are at first a reflection on the article and then a series of questions. It is in these critical thinking boxes that Copes and Pogrebin do their greatest service in their role as editors, for these are well-crafted, well-constructed, and well-thought out questions. They move the reader from reflecting on the experiences of the practitioner and outsiders, to thinking about the criminal justice system, and then push the reader to wrestle with the larger societal implications of each article. Every one of these critical thinking questions could easily fill a typical class session with a very engaging discussion.
It is often the case in edited volumes, the quality of articles will vary from weak to strong. In the case of Voices from Criminal Justice, all of the articles are strong, and I would not argue there is a weak one in the 30 articles. This is largely because the editors are drawing from a strong pool of ethnographers, including articles by Tewksbury, Poole, Crank, Pogrebin, Rodriguez, and so many other strong qualitative authors. That said, however, the articles do appear to be somewhat uneven when it comes to the level at which the articles are written, and this could present problems for the intended audience—the undergraduate student. It appeared that articles employing a high number of quotes from practitioners and outsiders did a better job of presenting the material on a level the undergraduate student will easily grasp, whereas those articles that employed this technique far less may present some difficulties for this level of student. It is not necessarily a handicap, only a word of caution for professors using this book in the classroom.
That said, this book would serve as an excellent supplement to the introduction to criminal justice course for the undergraduate student. Because the articles are so highly readable and engaging, I do not think the size of the book (513 pp.) should deter faculty from adopting this book for classroom use. The real fear is that students will be more likely to read this book and forego reading the main textbook. With such an innovative idea for incorporating qualitative research and voices from those in the field in the classroom, I only hope the editors decide to make this a series of books and create one for each of the core classes in the criminal justice curriculum; it would serve the discipline well.