Abstract
An edited volume, Crime and Public Policy brings together a remarkable body of literature that explores what we know—and equally interesting, what we do not know—about criminal justice policies in the United States. Editors Wilson and Petersilia describe the purpose of the book: “This book is not offered to readers because its message will ‘solve’ the crime problem but rather because it will demonstrate how to think about the problem” (p. 4).
Chapters are written by renowned experts who evenly present evidence-based perspectives on criminal justice policy issues. Each chapter serves as a model of how to analyze multiple (often competing) policy options in hope of identifying those that will provide the most meaningful or greatest impacts, while also recognizing that there is no panacea to crime.
Chapters focus on topic areas that have been classified by this reviewer into four substantive areas, described below.
The first explores the relationships between social institutions and crime. Chapters discuss: Families (by Farrington), including structure, parenting styles, abuse and neglect, and family criminality; the labor market (by Bushway), including vocational programming, the employment of youth (i.e., 18 and younger) and its impact on delinquency, the relationship between crime and the economy, and how incarceration is related to employment; and the community (by Sampson), including how community structure influences crime (and vice versa), collective efficacy, and community-based policy solutions.
The second area addresses issues related to criminological theory, important for their policy antecedents or implications. Two chapters focus on crime rates—the first (by Lynch and Pridemore) compares the United States to other countries in terms of the volume of crime and the degree of punitiveness, while also exploring methodological issues in cross-national measurement of crime; the second (by Rosenfeld) explores U.S. crime trends over the past half-century, with a particular focus on the mid-1990s crime decline. Two additional chapters focus on explanations for criminal activity, one (by Moffitt, Ross, and Raine) describing biological correlates of criminal behavior and the other (by Apel and Nagin) describing the principles of general deterrence and what research has found about deterrent effects of incarceration, capital punishment, and policing strategies.
The third area considers policy issues that have been the focus of contemporary debates. A chapter on gangs (by Maxson) explores trends in gang membership and gang activities, while also discussing the variety of policy initiatives that have been applied to reduce gang membership and gang violence. Gun control is the subject of another chapter (by Cook, Braga, and Moore), which considers what is known about the ownership and uses of firearms, multiple theoretical lenses through which gun issues may be viewed, and how policy may address gun issues. A chapter on sex offenders (by Beauregard and Lieb) surveys the research on sexual offenses, sexual offender recidivism, sex offender scripts, and laws and policies that might reduce sexual offending. Drug policy is considered in a chapter (by Boyum, Caulkins, and Kleiman) that examines links between drugs and crime and a wide range of drug policy options, including innovative current programs. Finally, a chapter on race (by Kennedy) focuses on disparities and discrimination in policing practices, sentencing, and the war on drugs.
The fourth area examines the criminal justice system, including: Police (by Sherman), with a philosophical discussion of policing in a democracy and an overview of contemporary policing strategies; prosecution (by Forst), considering the powers and impacts of prosecutorial discretion and potential avenues for prosecutorial reform; and sentencing (by Reitz), exploring the goals and impacts of sentencing, as well as an assessment of various sentencing systems. Additional chapters focus on: Community corrections (by Petersilia), including historical perspectives, what is known about program clients and program effectiveness, and principles of effective practice; prisons (by Piehl and Useem), covering a wide range of material about mass incarceration, the role of prisons in reducing crime, institutional programming, and institutional management; rehabilitation (by Cullen and Jonson), providing a recent history of rehabilitative efforts, a discussion of rehabilitative effectiveness, and a survey of types of rehabilitative programming; and juvenile justice (by Greenwood and Turner), describing juvenile criminality, policy debates in juvenile justice administration, and programming for juvenile crime prevention.
The volume concludes with an insightful essay by Wilson, which draws together themes from the contributed chapters.
Crime and Public Policy provides a comprehensive overview of U.S. criminal justice policy. Chapters are highly readable, thoroughly cited, and do not assume extensive prior knowledge. Most chapters provide a summary of findings at the outset, to frame the reading, and many chapters provide useful policy histories to help readers understand how we have arrived at the status quo. As such, the volume is an excellent resource for criminal justice students and scholars. It also serves as a superb reference for laypersons interested in criminal justice issues, and for policy makers seeking to engage with, and promote, evidence-based practice. The book also does a service for the discipline of criminal justice. The state of current knowledge as synthesized in this book showcases the academic rigor with which criminal justice policy has been studied and offers opportunities to seek key narratives (theoretical and applied) that drive the field.
There are few criticisms to offer. Some chapters go farther than others in offering policy recommendations (as opposed to surveying current research), but all clearly address issues central to modern criminal justice policy. One area left unaddressed is a discussion of the dynamics of the policy process, and how they influence the (often irrational, rather than evidence-based) making of criminal justice policy. A chapter addressing these dynamics could be a useful frame for the text, as a whole. Finally, and more to the credit than detriment of the book, the reader leaves wishing that there were simply more chapters, covering additional issues such as crime and schools, gender issues, domestic violence, mental health, and so on.
In summary, Crime and Public Policy should have a place on the bookshelves of academic and public libraries, as well as those of criminal justice students, scholars, policy makers, and practitioners.