Books Received
March 2014

Listed below are books received for review over the last two months. Entries include publishing information as well as a description of the book. Unless otherwise stated, the book description is taken from the publisher’s website or the book jacket. Selected titles from this list will be chosen for a full review in forthcoming issues of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books. Previous books received are available from the links below.

African American Felon Disenfranchisement: Case Studies in Modern Racism and Political Exclusion, by John E. Pinkard Sr. El Paso, TX: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, 2013. 252p.

“Utilizing a field study on felons that were within one year of completing incarceration, Pinkard analyzes the legal history, constitutionality, conflicting laws, political, and life chance consequences of felon disenfranchisement laws on African American felons and the African American community. Research and data presented in this book indicate that: felon disenfranchisement is based on moralistic beliefs, modern racism, and stereotypes about human differences and that permanent political marginalization of a particular segment of American society not only negates democracy in principle by diluting voter participation and equal representation but also assures the debasement of specific segments of society and the life chances of African Americans in particular.” From Publisher’s Website

Aggressive Driving: Insights Derived from Psychology’s General Aggression Model, by Yusheng Lin. El Paso, TX: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, 2013. 194p.

“Lin uses two separate studies with independent samples and different measures to explore how self-control personality traits sensation seeking, impulsivity, CFC, and anger/temper arousal relate to risky driving and aggressive driving within the framework of the GAM. He extends low self-control theory by demonstrating how the personality traits involved in this construct are associated with criminal/analogue deviant behaviors. The findings not only validate the meditational model of the GAM, but also imply that it could serve as a useful framework to study violent/property crime in future research.” From Publisher’s Website

Beyond Explicit: Pornography and the Displacement of Sex, by Helen Hester. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2014. 234p.

“This original contribution to porn studies aims to interrogate previously untheorized changes in contemporary understandings of the pornographic. Helen Hester argues that the words “porn” and “pornographic” are currently being applied to an ever-expanding range of material and that this change in language usage reflects a wider shift in perception. She suggests that we are witnessing a seemingly paradoxical move away from sex within contemporary understandings of porn, as a range of other factors come to influence the concept. Using examples from media, literature, and culture, and discussing the rise of notions such as “torture porn” and “misery porn,” Hester’s argument ranges from sexually explicit German novels and British policy documents to a discussion of the differences between European and American editions of pornographic films. She concludes that four factors in particular—transgression, intensity, prurience, and authenticity—can be seen to influence the way that we think about porn.” From Publisher’s Website

Confronting Capital Punishment in Asia: Human Rights, Politics, and Public Opinion, ed. by Roger Hood & Surya Deva. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2013. 310p.

“Capital punishment has for many years now been the subject of controversy and moral debate. With the strengthening focus worldwide on human rights there has been a movement to abolish this form of punishment or in the least, uphold the minimum international law standards aimed at protecting the rights of those facing capital punishment.

This book identifies Asia as being particularly unaffected by these international pressures. The essays contained in this volume provide an analysis of changes in the scope and application of the death penalty in Asian countries, and explain in what ways they fail to meet these international law standards.” From Publisher’s Website

The Cop and the Sociologist: Investigating Diversity in German Police Forces, by Barbara Theriault. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2013. 220p.

“Drawing on the sociology of Max Weber, Barbara Thériault investigates today’s relations toward difference within German police forces. Accompanying and interviewing police officers whose job it is to contribute to the acknowledgement of difference, the sociologist outlines three ideal types of actors — an empathetic, a principled, and an opportunist one — and the motives underlying their actions. A fourth type, the specialist, is conspicuously absent. Why is that so? Solving this enigma helps depicting the relations to difference within police forces: it points to a specific “spirit” of diversity and a singular way to apprehend the individual in Germany.” From Publisher’s Website

Dirty Assets: Emerging Issues in the Regulation of Criminal and Terrorist Assets, ed. by Colin King & Clive Walker. Farnham, Surrey, UK; Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2014. 352p.

“Adopting a multi-disciplinary and comparative approach, this book focuses on the emerging and innovative aspects of attempts to target the accumulated assets of those engaged in criminal and terrorist activity, organized crime and corruption. It examines the ‘follow-the-money’ approach and explores the nature of criminal, civil and regulatory responses used to attack the financial assets of those engaged in financial crime in order to deter and disrupt future criminal activity as well as terrorism networks. With contributions from leading international academics and practitioners in the fields of law, economics, financial management, criminology, sociology and political science, the book explores law and practice in countries with significant problems and experiences, revealing new insights into these dilemmas. It also discusses the impact of the ‘follow-the-money’ approach on human rights while also assessing effectiveness. The book will appeal to academics and researchers of financial crime, organized crime and terrorism as well as practitioners in the police, prosecution, financial and taxation agencies, policy-makers and lawyers.” From Publisher’s Website

Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice, ed. by Jay S. Albanese. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2014. 2760p.
“Comprising over 500 entries on the essential topics within criminology and criminal justice, and available in print and online, this encyclopedia offers a state-of-the-art survey informed by the very latest theory and research. It combines this breadth of coverage with the authority and international perspective of an experienced editorial team, creating a definitive reference resource for students, scholars, and professionals in these interdisciplinary and dynamic fields.

  • Comprehensive: Offers wide-ranging coverage spanning 15 substantive areas within criminology and criminal justice, including criminal law, juvenile justice, education and professionalism, history of crime, and victimization
  • Authoritative: Edited by one of criminology’s leading authorities, and peer reviewed by a team of 14 associate editors, all of whom are renowned in their fields
  • Accessible: Uniquely organized to allow easy searching and cross referencing by keyword, topic, or alphabetical order
  • International: Brings together a global team of contributors from ten countries to offer a uniquely international perspective on topics such as transnational crime
  • Cutting-edge: Combines state-of-the-art coverage of developments in areas such as homeland security and forensic science, with the core topics within criminology and criminal justice
  • Interdisciplinary: Draws on the very latest theory and research from a number of fields, including criminal justice, criminology, sociology, law, security studies, and the psychology of crime, resulting in a valuable resource that will appeal to all those studying or working in related disciplines
  • Multi-format: Publishing simultaneously as a five-volume print set and via Wiley Online Library; visit www.encyclopediaofcriminology.com for further details” From Publisher’s Website
European Police: And Criminal Law Co-Operation, ed. by Maria Bergström & Anna Jonsson Cornell. Oxford, UK; Portland, OR: Hart Publishing, 2014. 236p.

“This is the fifth volume in the series Swedish Studies in European Law, produced by the Swedish Network for European Legal Studies. It focuses on EU criminal law and transnational police cooperation. Against the background of the most important changes introduced by the Lisbon Treaty in the area of criminal law and police cooperation, the book is divided into four main sections, with each section analyzing some specific challenges. The first section of the book includes a critical analysis of the boundaries of new criminal law competencies, as well as some more general challenges for EU criminal law. Specific focus is set on the lawmaking process. The second section deals with EU criminal law and fundamental rights, in particular the protection of personal data and individual privacy. It focuses on the implementation of EU law into national legal orders and the challenges that this process brings with it. The third section maps out specific challenges in transnational police cooperation – in particular, the important issue of the sharing of information between law enforcement agencies and its potential impact on the protection of fundamental rights. In the final section, the focus shifts toward networks, the horizontal agency, and multi-level cooperation in a wider sense within the area of freedom, security, and justice. (Series: Swedish Studies in European Law – Vol. 5)” From Publisher’s Website

File-Sharers and Copyright-Infringers: Threat or Menace? By Whitney D. Gunter. El Paso, TX: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, 2013. 192p.

“Whether you choose to call it file sharing, copyright infringement, or digital piracy, downloading non-licensed music, movies, software, and other forms of digital content is common worldwide. Despite the widespread nature of this phenomenon, much remains unknown about it. Is digital piracy truly having a negative impact on society? Does enforcement actually deter would-be downloaders? Gunter examines these issues, providing both an analysis of the historical aspects of copyright and of newly collected data on downloaders. His findings lead into a critique of the pros and cons of the current state of copyright law and enforcement.” From Publisher’s Website

Grief, Loss, and Treatment for Death Row Families: Forgotten No More, by Sandra Joy. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2013. 298p.

“The families of death row inmates are rarely considered in public discourse regarding the death penalty. They have largely been forgotten, and their pain has not been acknowledged by the rest of society. These families experience a unique grief process as they are confronted with the loss of their loved one to death row and brace themselves for the possibility of an execution. Death row families are disenfranchised from their grief by the surrounding community, and their; mental health needs exacerbated as they struggle in isolation with the ambiguous loss that comes with the fear that the state will kill their loved one.

Grief, Loss, and Treatment for Death Row Families describes the grief that families experience from the time of their loved one’s arrest through his or her execution. In each chapter, Sandra Joy guides the reader through the grief process experienced by the families, offering clinical interventions that can be used by mental health professionals who are given the opportunity to work with these families at various stages of their grief. The author conducted over seventy qualitative interviews with family members from Delaware who either currently have a loved one on death row or have survived the execution of their loved one. Delaware was chosen because though it has a relatively small death row, it is ranked third in the nation with its rate of per capita executions. This book provides an in-depth awareness of the grieving process of death row families, as well as ways that professionals can intervene to assist them in healing. With increased awareness and effective clinical treatment, we can ensure that the families of death row inmates are forgotten no more.” From Publisher’s Website

Human Trafficking in Cambodia, by Chenda Keo. Abingdon, UK; New York: Routledge, 2014. 240p.

“Reporting the findings of a comprehensive study of human trafficking in Cambodia, this book focuses on the characteristics and operations of the traffickers. It provides a theoretical framework that explains the emergence of the phenomenon, and the role of moral panic and western hegemony in the war on human trafficking.

Using a multi-method and multi-source research design, which includes an examination of police and prison records as well as interviews with 91 incarcerated human traffickers, police and prison officers, court officials, and members of NGOs, this book investigates five major themes about human traffickers in Cambodia: who are they, how do they operate, how much profit do they make, why are they involved in human trafficking, and how does the Cambodian Criminal Justice System (CJS) control their activities?

A novel and unique analysis, this book is of interest to a wide academic audience in the fields of Asian Studies, Human Trafficking, Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science, Human Geography and Critical Legal Studies.” From Publisher’s Website

Human Trafficking: The Stakeholders’ Perspective, ed. by Veerendra Mishra. New Dehli, India: SAGE Publications, 2014. 400p.

“Trafficking of persons is a modern-day form of slavery, threatening the dignity and security of millions of people throughout the world. Virtually every country in the world and every state of India is affected by this crime as a place of origin, transit or destination for victims. This book is an attempt to discuss various issues of human trafficking, including perspectives of various stakeholders. The book argues that crime cannot be dealt with only by applying piecemeal tactics. Instead, it will require an organised professional, multi-disciplinary and multi-agency approach, calling for concerted, collaborative and participatory efforts of all stakeholders. All the essays included in this book are original works delving deeply into various forms of human trafficking. They are organised into different themes such as sexual exploitation, child trafficking, trafficking outside India, legal aspects, state experiences and case studies.” From Publisher’s Website

Inferno: An Anatomy of American Punishment, by Robert A. Ferguson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014. 352p.

“America’s criminal justice system is broken. The United States punishes at a higher per capita rate than any other country in the world. In the last twenty years, incarceration rates have risen 500 percent. Sentences are harsh, prisons are overcrowded, life inside is dangerous, and rehabilitation programs are ineffective. Police and prosecutors operate in the dark shadows of the legal process–sometimes resigning themselves to the status quo, sometimes turning a profit from it. The courts define punishment as “time served,” but that hardly begins to explain the suffering of prisoners.

Looking not only to court records but to works of philosophy, history, and literature for illumination, Robert Ferguson, a distinguished law professor, diagnoses all parts of a now massive, out-of-control punishment regime. He reveals the veiled pleasure behind the impulse to punish (which confuses our thinking about the purpose of punishment), explains why over time all punishment regimes impose greater levels of punishment than originally intended, and traces a disturbing gap between our ability to quantify pain and the precision with which penalties are handed down.

Ferguson turns the spotlight from the debate over legal issues to the real plight of prisoners, addressing not law professionals but the American people. Do we want our prisons to be this way? Or are we unaware, or confused, or indifferent, or misinformed about what is happening? Acknowledging the suffering of prisoners and understanding what punishers do when they punish are the first steps toward a better, more just system.” From Publisher’s Website

Intelligence-Led Policing: A Policing Innovation, by Jeremy G. Carter. El Paso, TX: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, 2013. 244p.

“After the attacks of September 11, 2001, American law enforcement was confronted with the reality that the mechanisms utilized by federal, state, and local police to share information across jurisdictions were inadequate. Intelligence-led policing is the emerging philosophy by which law enforcement can actively engage in information sharing to prevent or mitigate threats. There exists little empirical evidence as to how police organizations are implementing this new philosophy. Carter explores the innovative adoption of intelligence-led policing among American law enforcement and operationalizes what being intelligence-led actually constitutes. Recommendations for improving the adoption of intelligence-led policing by state and local police are provided.” From Publisher’s Website

Labeling Theory: Empirical Tests, ed. by David P. Parrington & Joseph Murray. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2014. 277p.

“Labeling theory has been an extremely important and influential development in criminology, but its recent advances have been largely neglected. This volume aims to reinvigorate labeling theory by presenting a comprehensive range of its modern applications.

In the first section, Ross Matsueda chronicles the early history of the theory. Fred Markowitz then reviews labeling theory research as applied to mental illness. Francis T. Cullen and Cheryl Lero Jonson discuss the relationship between labeling theory and correctional rehabilitation. The second section, which is focused on previous tests of labeling theory, begins with a review of prior empirical tests by Kelle Barrick. Anthony Petrosino and his colleagues then summarize their meta-analysis of the impact of the juvenile system processing on delinquency. Lawrence Sherman then discusses experiments on criminal sanctions. The final segment on empirical tests of labeling theory begins with a chapter by Marvin Krohn and his colleagues on the effects of official intervention on later offending. The long-term effects of incarceration are then investigated by Joseph Murray and his colleagues. Finally, Steven Raphael reviews the effects of conviction and incarceration on future employment.

This landmark book presents the most comprehensive and up-to-date knowledge about labeling theory, and illustrates the importance of this theory for policy and practice. It is the latest volume in Transaction’s acclaimed Advances in Criminological Theory series.” From Publisher’s Website

Male Rape is a Feminist Issue: Feminism, Governmentality and Male Rape, by Claire Cohen. Basingstoke, UK; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

“Male rape is a feminist issue – but perhaps not in the way that you might think. This work is an experiment in Foucauldian thought that attempts to satisfy Foucault’s imperative to ‘think differently’. From this positioning, feminist constructions of ‘male rape’ can plausibly be claimed to operate as a ‘regime of truth’, but one must necessarily question whether this is running counter to patriarchy.

This book seeks to problematize knowledge and practices regarding ‘male rape’, examining the social realms of the Academy, popular culture, policy and provision in the constitution of the subject. Discussion is moved beyond notions of fairness or justice. Instead, Cohen seeks to ascertain the discursive regularities in these sites, considers the power-effects of such discourse and thus conceives of ‘male rape’ as illustrating the success of governmentality.” From Publisher’s Website

A Norwegian Tragedy: Anders Behring Breivik and the Massacre of Utøya, by Aage Borchgrevink. Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2013. 300p.

“On 22 July 2011 a young man named Anders Behring Breivik carried out one of the most vicious terrorist acts in post-war Europe. In a carefully orchestrated sequence of actions he bombed government buildings in Oslo, resulting in eight deaths, then carried out a mass shooting at a camp of the Workers’ Youth League of the Labour Party on the island of Utøya, where he murdered sixty-nine people, mostly teenagers.

How could Anders Behring Breivik – a middle-class boy from the West End of Oslo – end up as one of the most violent terrorists in post-war Europe? Where did his hatred come from?

In A Norwegian Tragedy, Aage Borchgrevink attempts to provide an answer. Taking us with him to the multiethnic and class-divided city where Breivik grew up, he follows the perpetrator of the attacks into an unfamiliar online world of violent computer games and anti-Islamic hatred, and demonstrates the connection between Breivik’s childhood and the darkest pages of his 1500-page manifesto.

This is the definitive story of 22 July 2011: a Norwegian tragedy.” From Publisher’s Website

The Nurture Versus Biosocial Debate in Criminology: On the Origins of Criminal Behavior and Criminality, ed. by Kevin M. Beaver, J.C. Barnes & Brian B. Boutwell. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2015. 472p.

The Nurture Versus Biosocial Debate in Criminology: On the Origins of Criminal Behavior and Criminality takes a contemporary approach to address the sociological and the biological positions of human behavior by allowing preeminent scholars in criminology to speak to the effects of each on a range of topics. Kevin M. Beaver, J.C. Barnes, and Brian B. Boutwell aim to facilitate an open and honest debate between the more traditional criminologists who focus primarily on environmental factors and contemporary biosocial criminologists who examine the interplay between biology/genetics and environmental factors.” From Publisher’s Website

Penal Power and Colonial Rule, by Mark Brown. Abingdon, UK; New York: Routledge, 2014. 226p.

“This book provides an account of the distinctive way in which penal power developed outside the metropolitan centre. Proposing a radical revision of the Foucauldian thesis that criminological knowledge emerged in the service of a new form of power – discipline – that had inserted itself into the very centre of punishment, it argues that Foucault’s alignment of sovereign, disciplinary and governmental power will need to be reread and rebalanced to account for its operation in the colonial sphere. In particular it proposes that colonial penal power in India is best understood as a central element of a liberal colonial governmentality.

To give an account of the emergence of this colonial form of penal power that was distinct from its metropolitan counterpart, this book analyses the British experience in India from the 1820s to the early 1920s. It provides a genealogy of both civil and military spheres of government, illustrating how knowledge of marginal and criminal social orders was tied in crucial ways to the demands of a colonial rule that was neither monolithic nor necessarily coherent. The analysis charts the emergence of a liberal colonial governmentality where power was almost exclusively framed in terms of sovereignty and security and where disciplinary strategies were given only limited and equivocal attention.

Drawing on post-colonial theory, Penal Power and Colonial Rule opens up a new and unduly neglected area of research. An insightful and original exploration of theory and history, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Law, Criminology, History and Post-colonial Studies.” From Publisher’s Website

The OECD Convention on Bribery: A Commentary, ed. by Mark Pieth, Lucinda A. Low & Nicola Bonucci. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. 858p.
 
“The OECD Convention on Bribery established an international standard for compliance with anti-corruption rules, and has subsequently been adopted by the thirty-four OECD members and six non-member countries. As a result of the Convention and national implementation laws, companies and managers now risk tough sanctions if they are caught bribing foreign officials. The UK Bribery Act 2010 is only one example of this development. The second edition of this, the only commentary on the Convention, provides law practitioners, company lawyers and academic researchers with comprehensive guidance on the OECD standards. It includes case examples as well as the FCPA Resource Guide 2012 and the 2009 OECD Recommendation for Further Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials with Annexes I and II.” From Publisher’s Website
Policing Digital Crime, ed. by Robin Bryant & Sarah Bryant. Farnham, Surrey, UK; Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2014. 258p.

“By its very nature digital crime may present a number of specific detection and investigative challenges. The use of steganography to hide child abuse images for example, can pose the kind of technical and legislative problems inconceivable just two decades ago. The volatile nature of much digital evidence can also pose problems, particularly in terms of the actions of the ‘first officer on the scene’. There are also concerns over the depth of understanding that ‘generic police investigators may have concerning the possible value (or even existence) of digitally based evidence. Furthermore, although it is perhaps a cliche to claim that digital crime (and cybercrime in particular) respects no national boundaries, it is certainly the case that a significant proportion of investigations are likely to involve multinational cooperation, with all the complexities that follow from this. This groundbreaking volume offers a theoretical perspective on the policing of digital crime in the western world. Using numerous case-study examples to illustrate the theoretical material introduced this volume examine the organisational context for policing digital crime as well as crime prevention and detection. This work is a must-read for all academics, police practitioners and investigators working in the field of digital crime.” From Publisher’s Website

Policing Diversity: Determinants of White, Black, and Hispanic Attitudes toward Police, by Yung-Lien Lai. El Paso, TX: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, 2013. 186p.

“Lai extends the current knowledge of public attitudes toward the police (ATP) by examining two distinct dimensions: general and specific attitudes. The significant findings indicated that African Americans consistently reported unfavorable ATP across two dimensions, but the Hispanics did not have any significant influence. While ratings of police work were highly related to public ATP, victimization and violent crime incidents decreased the levels of public rating among all respondents. Meanwhile, coproduction increased the levels of public ATP. Finally, both citizen-initiated and police-initiated interactions had significant influence on public ATP but varied among racial/ethnical groups. Policy implications and limitations were addressed.” From Publisher’s Website

Power, National Security, and Transformation Global Events: Challenges Confronting America, China and Iran, ed. by Thomas A. Johnson. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2012. 391p.

“As the United States struggled to survive the recent recession, China quietly acquired a vast amount of U.S. Treasury bills and bonds. With China now holding so much of America’s debt, currency valuation issues have already caused tensions between the two superpowers. Couple this with Iran’s efforts to develop into a nuclear power in an area that lacks political stability, and the United States and China could soon find themselves in a global power tug-of-war.

Power, National Security, and Transformational Global Events: Challenges Confronting America, China, and Iran explores the shifts in power that have initiated major transformational events around the world. Expert contributors identify the major challenges that now confront America as a result of these transformations. Filled with authoritative insights into how current and emerging situations will impact the United States, the book illustrates the policy problems and limited choices facing America. It also:

  • Describes the information technology and social media tools that were instrumental in the Arab revolution
  • Provides the insights of experts from the Intelligence Community on emerging issues that will soon impact America
  • Illustrates the policy problems involved in addressing the challenges with Iran
  • Explores the rapid growth of China’s economic wealth and military power

This much-needed reference describes and analyzes the emergence of cyber power and its capabilities for cyber attack, cyber warfare, and cyber defense. It examines the information revolution and social media instruments, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, in terms of their role and impact on the Arab revolution. It also discusses the fallacy of the decline of the United States as a superpower in terms of its formation and distribution of power resources and its continued formidable military and national security strengths.” From Publisher’s Website

Psychopathy: An Introduction to Biological Findings and Their Implications, by Andrea L. Glenn & Adrian Raine. New York: New York University Press, 2014. 254p.

“The last two decades have seen tremendous growth in biological research on psychopathy, a mental disorder distinguished by traits including a lack of empathy or emotional response, egocentricity, impulsivity, and stimulation seeking. But how does a psychopath’s brain work? What makes a psychopath?

Psychopathy provides a concise, non-technical overview of the research in the areas of genetics, hormones, brain imaging, neuropsychology, environmental influences, and more, focusing on explaining what we currently know about the biological foundations for this disorder and offering insights into prediction, intervention, and prevention. It also offers a nuanced discussion of the ethical and legal implications associated with biological research on psychopathy. How much of this disorder is biologically based? Should offenders with psychopathic traits be punished for their crimes if we can show that biological factors contribute? The text clearly assesses the conclusions that can and cannot be drawn from existing biological research, and highlights the pressing considerations this research demands.” From Publisher’s Website

The Reasoning Criminal: Rational Choice Perspectives on Offending, ed. by Derek B. Cornish & Ronald V. Clarke. Rev. ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2014. 268p.

“The assumption that rewards and punishments influence our choices between different courses of action underlies economic, sociological, psychological, and legal thinking about human action. Hence, the notion of a reasoning criminal—one who employs the same sorts of cognitive strategies when contemplating offending as they and the rest of us use when making other decisions—might seem a small contribution to crime control. This conclusion would be mistaken.

This volume develops an alternative approach, termed the “rational choice perspective,” to explain criminal behavior. Instead of emphasizing the differences between criminals and non-criminals, it stresses some of the similarities. In particular, while the contributors do not deny the existence of irrational and pathological components in crimes, they suggest that the rational aspects of offending should be explored.

An international group of researchers in criminology, psychology, and economics provide a comprehensive review of original research on the criminal offender as a reasoning decision maker. While recognizing the crucial influence of situational factors, the rational choice perspective provides a framework within which to incorporate and locate existing theories about crime. In doing so it also provides both a new agenda for research and sheds a fresh light on deterrent and prevention policies.” From Publisher’s Website

Reintegrative Justice in Practice: The Informal Management of Crime in an Island Community, Helen Miles & Peter Raynor. Farnham, Surrey, UK; Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2014. 227p.

“Recent years have seen the development of a growing international literature on restorative justice, community justice and reintegrative alternatives to formal criminal justice processes. This literature is stronger on theory and advocacy than on detailed evaluative studies. It often relies for its practical examples on the presumed historical practices of the indigenous peoples of colonised territories, or on attempts to revive or promote modified versions of these in a modern context, which has led to debates about how far modern communities can provide a viable setting for such initiatives. This book provides a unique study of the practice of traditional reintegrative community justice in a European society, the Parish Hall Enquiry (PHE) in the Channel Island of Jersey. This is an ancient institution, based on an informal hearing and discussion of a reported offence with the alleged offender and other interested parties, carried out by centeniers (honorary police officers elected to one of Jersey’s twelve parishes). It is still in regular use as an integral part of a modern criminal justice system, and it usually aims to resolve offences without recourse to formal prosecution in court. Helen Miles and Peter Raynor’s research, arising from direct observation, contributes to the literature on ‘what works’ in resolving conflicts and influencing offenders, and their detailed case studies of how problems are addressed gives a ‘hands on’ flavour of the process. The authors also document the aspects of community life in Jersey that facilitate or hinder the continuation of the PHEs, drawing out the implications of these findings for wider debates about the necessary and sufficient social conditions for reintegrative justice to succeed.” From Publisher’s Website

The Rise of the Chicago Police Department: Class and Conflict, 1850-1894, by Sam Mitrani. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2013. 272p.

“In this book, Sam Mitrani cogently examines the making of the police department in Chicago, which by the late 1800s had grown into the most violent, turbulent city in America. Chicago was roiling with political and economic conflict, much of it rooted in class tensions, and the city’s lawmakers and business elite fostered the growth of a professional municipal police force to protect capitalism, its assets, and their own positions in society. Together with city policymakers, the business elite united behind an ideology of order that would simultaneously justify the police force’s existence and dictate its functions.

Tracing the Chicago police department’s growth through events such as the 1855 Lager Beer riot, the Civil War, the May Day strikes, the 1877 railroad workers strike and riot, and the Haymarket violence in 1886, Mitrani demonstrates that this ideology of order both succeeded and failed in its aims. Recasting late nineteenth-century Chicago in terms of the struggle over order, this insightful history uncovers the modern police department’s role in reconciling democracy with industrial capitalism.” From Publisher’s Website

Sex, Crime, and Literature in Victorian England, by Ian Ward. Oxford, UK; Portland, OR: Hart Publishing, 2014. 192p.

“The Victorians worried about many things, prominent among their worries being the ‘condition’ of England and the ‘question’ of its women. Sex, Crime and Literature in Victorian England revisits these particular anxieties, concentrating more closely upon four ‘crimes’ which generated special concern amongst contemporaries: adultery, bigamy, infanticide, and prostitution. Each engaged with questions of sexuality and its regulation – as well as the legal, moral, and cultural concerns – which attracted the considerable interest, not just of lawyers and parliamentarians, but also novelists and poets, and perhaps most importantly, those who, in ever-larger numbers, liked to pass their leisure hours reading about sex and crime. Alongside statutes such as the 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act and the 1864 Contagious Diseases Act, the book contemplates those texts which shaped Victorian attitudes towards England’s ‘condition’ and the ‘question’ of its women – the novels of Dickens, Thackeray, and Eliot; the works of sensationalists, such as Ellen Wood and Mary Braddon; and the poetry of Gabriel and Christina Rossetti. Sex, Crime and Literature in Victorian England is a richly contextual commentary on a critical period in the evolution of modern legal and cultural attitudes to the relation of crime, sexuality, and the family. It is an important study for all those interested in law and literature, legal history, and criminology.” From Publisher’s Website

Sex in Prison: Myths and Realities, ed. by Catherine D. Marcum & Tammy L. Castle. Boulder, CO; UK: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2014. 191p.

“Despite being deemed an illegal activity, participation in sexual activity behind prison walls is a frequent occurrence. Catherine Marcum and Tammy Castle provide a comprehensive study of all aspects of prison sex.

Incorporating inmate, correctional officer, and policymaker perspectives and debunking myths the authors consider the full range of consensual and nonconsensual behaviors. They also address the physical, emotional, and legal repercussions of participating in prison sexual relationships. Their analysis is enriched by a case study of a privately run correctional facility, revealing the effects of the Prison Rape Elimination Act at the local level.” From Publisher’s Website

Sex Work Politics: From Protest to Service Provision, by Samantha Majic. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014, 216p.

“In San Francisco, the St. James Infirmary (SJI) and the California Prostitutes Education Project (CAL-PEP) provide free, nonjudgmental medical care, counseling, and other health and social services by and for sex workers—a radical political commitment at odds with government policies that criminalize prostitution. To maintain and expand these much-needed services and to qualify for funding from state, federal, and local authorities, such organizations must comply with federal and state regulations for nonprofits. In Sex Work Politics, Samantha Majic investigates the way nonprofit organizations negotiate their governmental obligations while maintaining their commitment to outreach and advocacy for sex workers’ rights as well as broader sociopolitical change.

Drawing on multimethod qualitative research, Majic outlines the strategies that CAL-PEP and SJI employ to balance the conflicting demands of service and advocacy, which include treating sex work as labor with legitimate occupational health and safety concerns, empowering their clients with civic skills to advance their political commitments outside the nonprofit organization, and conducting and publishing research and analysis to inform the public and policymakers of their constituents’ needs. Challenging the assumption that activists must “sell out” and abandon radical politics to manage formal organizations, Majic comes to the surprising conclusion that it is indeed possible to maintain effective advocacy and key social movement values, beliefs, and practices, even while partnering with government agencies. Sex Work Politics significantly contributes to studies of transformational politics with its nuanced portrait of nonprofits as centers capable of sustaining political and social change.” From Publisher’s Website

Showing Remorse: Law and the Social Control of Emotion, by Richard Weisman. Farnham, Surrey, UK; Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2014. 149p.

“Whether or not wrongdoers show remorse and how they show remorse are matters that attract great interest both in law and in popular culture. In capital trials in the United States, it can be a question of life or death whether a jury believes that a wrongdoer showed remorse. And in wrongdoings that capture the popular imagination, public attention focuses not only on the act but on whether the perpetrator feels remorse for what they did. But who decides when remorse should be shown or not shown and whether it is genuine or not genuine? In contrast to previous academic studies on the subject, the primary focus of this work is not on whether the wrongdoer meets these expectations over how and when remorse should be shown but on how the community reacts when these expectations are met or not met. Using examples drawn from Canada, the United States, and South Africa, the author demonstrates that the showing of remorse is a site of negotiation and contention between groups who differ about when it is to be expressed and how it is to be expressed. The book illustrates these points by looking at cases about which there was conflict over whether the wrongdoer should show remorse or whether the feelings that were shown were sincere. Building on the earlier analysis, the author shows that the process of deciding when and how remorse should be expressed contributes to the moral ordering of society as a whole. This book will be of interest to those in the fields of sociology, law, law and society, and criminology.” From Publisher’s Website

Sister Wives, Surrogates and Sex Workers: Outlaws by Choice? By Angela Campbell. Farnham, Surrey, UK; Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2013. 240p.

“Did she choose that?’ Or, more normatively, ‘Why would she ever choose that?’ This book critiques and offers an alternative to these questions, which have traditionally framed law and policy discussions circulating around controversial genderized practices. It examines the simplicity and incompleteness of choice-based rhetoric and of presumptions that women’s conduct is shaped, in an absolute way, either by choice or by coercion. This book develops an analytical framework that aims to discern the meaning and value that women may ascribe to morally ambiguous practices. An analysis of law’s approach to polygamy, surrogacy and sex work, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, provides a basis for evaluating the choice-coercion binary and for contemplating alternate modes for assessing, from a law and policy standpoint, the palatability of social practices that appear pernicious to women. Weaving together interdisciplinary research, an innovative analytical framework for assessing choices ostensibly harmful to women, and a critique of the legal rules governing such choices, this book bears relevance for students, scholars, practicing jurists and policymakers seeking a richer understanding of conduct that moves women to the margins of law and society.” From Publisher’s Website

Smarter Crime Control: A Guide to a Safer Future for Citizens, Communities, and Politicians, by Irvin Waller. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. 300p.

“The U.S. is the world´s biggest jailor and one of the most affluent murderous countries, and yet its citizens pay more taxes to sustain law and order than their European counterparts. Yet, the U.S. has the most data in the world on the use of incarceration and its failure. Its researchers have identified more projects able to prevent violence than the rest of the world put together. Its legislators have access to pioneering data banks on cost effective ways to use taxes to reduce crime. We are left wondering why we cannot implement measures that we know will work, reduce crime, and cost less for law and order.

Smarter Crime Control shows how to use recent knowledge and best practices to reduce the extraordinarily high rates of murder, traffic fatalities, drug overdoses, and incarceration, while avoiding the high taxes paid by families for policing and prisons. Providing detailed examples, Irvin Waller offers specific actions our leaders at all levels can take to reduce violence and lower costs to taxpayers. He focuses on how to retool policing and improve corrections to reduce reoffending and crime, while limiting criminal courts. He also shows how programs and investments in various strategies can help those youth on the path to chronic offending avoid the path all together.

Waller shows how to get smart on crime to shift the criminal justice paradigm from the failing, outdated, racially biased, and exorbitant complex today to an effective, modern, fair and lean system for safer communities that spares so many victims from the loss and pain of preventable violence. He makes a compelling case for reinvesting what is currently misspent on reacting to crime into smart ways to prevent crime. Ultimately, he demonstrates to readers the importance of reevaluating our current system and putting into place proven strategies for crime and violence prevention that will keep people out of jail and make our streets and communities safer for everyone.” From Publisher’s Website

Taming Lust: Crimes Against Nature in the Early Republic, by Doron S. Ben-Atar & Richard D. Brown. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014. 216p.

“In 1796, as revolutionary fervor waned and the Age of Reason took hold, an eighty-five-year-old Massachusetts doctor was convicted of bestiality and sentenced to hang. Three years later and seventy miles away, an eighty-three-year-old Connecticut farmer was convicted of the same crime and sentenced to the same punishment. Prior to these criminal trials, neither Massachusetts nor Connecticut had executed anyone for bestiality in over a century. Though there are no overt connections between the two episodes, the similarities of their particulars are strange and striking. Historians Doron S. Ben-Atar and Richard D. Brown delve into the specifics to determine what larger social, political, or religious forces could have compelled New England courts to condemn two octogenarians for sexual misbehavior typically associated with much younger men.

The stories of John Farrell and Gideon Washburn are less about the two old men than New England officials who, riding the rough waves of modernity, returned to the severity of their ancestors. The political upheaval of the Revolution and the new republic created new kinds of cultural experience—both exciting and frightening—at a moment when New England farmers and village elites were contesting long-standing assumptions about divine creation and the social order. Ben-Atar and Brown offer a rare and vivid perspective on anxieties about sexual and social deviance in the early republic.” From Publisher’s Website

Terror Detentions and the Rule of Law: US and UK Perspectives, by Robert H. Wagstaff. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. 400p.

“After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the United States and the United Kingdom detained suspected terrorists in a manner incompatible with the due process, fair trial, and equality requirements of the Rule of Law. The legality of the detentions was challenged and found wanting by the highest courts in the US and UK. The US courts approached these questions as matters within the law of war, whereas the UK courts examined them within a human rights criminal law context.

In Terror Detentions and the Rule of Law: US and UK Perspectives, Dr. Robert H. Wagstaff documents President George W. Bush’s and Prime Minister Tony Blair’s responses to 9/11, alleging that they failed to protect the human rights of individuals suspected of terrorist activity. The analytical focus is on the four US Supreme Court decisions involving detentions in Guantanamo Bay and four House of Lords decisions involving detentions that began in the Belmarsh Prison. These decisions are analyzed within the contexts of history, criminal law, constitutional law, human rights and international law, and various jurisprudential perspectives. In this book Dr. Wagstaff argues that time-tested criminal law is the normatively correct and most effective means for dealing with suspected terrorists. He also suggests that preventive, indefinite detention of terrorist suspects upon suspicion of wrongdoing contravenes the domestic and international Rule of Law, treaties and customary international law. As such, new legal paradigms for addressing terrorism are shown to be normatively invalid, illegal, unconstitutional, counter-productive, and in conflict with the Rule of Law.” From Publisher’s Website

 Tough On Hate? The Cultural Politics of Hate Crimes, by Clara S. Lewis. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2014. 168p.

“Why do we know every gory crime scene detail about such victims as Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. and yet almost nothing about the vast majority of other hate crime victims? Now that federal anti-hate-crimes laws have been passed, why has the number of these crimes not declined significantly? To answer such questions, Clara S. Lewis challenges us to reconsider our understanding of hate crimes. In doing so, she raises startling issues about the trajectory of civil and minority rights.

Tough on Hate is the first book to examine the cultural politics of hate crimes both within and beyond the law. Drawing on a wide range of sources—including personal interviews, unarchived documents, television news broadcasts, legislative debates, and presidential speeches—the book calls attention to a disturbing irony: the sympathetic attention paid to certain shocking hate crime murders further legitimizes an already pervasive unwillingness to act on the urgent civil rights issues of our time. Worse still, it reveals the widespread acceptance of ideas about difference, tolerance, and crime that work against future progress on behalf of historically marginalized communities.” From Publisher’s Website

Transitional Justice Theories, ed. by Susanne Buckley-Zistel, Teresa Koloma Beck, Christian Braun & Friederike Mieth. Abingdon, UK; New York: Routledge, 2014. 240p.

Transitional Justice Theories is the first volume to approach the politically sensitive subject of post-conflict or post-authoritarian justice from a theoretical perspective. It combines contributions from distinguished scholars and practitioners as well as from emerging academics from different disciplines and provides an overview of conceptual approaches to the field. The volume seeks to refine our understanding of transitional justice by exploring often unarticulated assumptions that guide discourse and practice. To this end, it offers a wide selection of approaches from various theoretical traditions ranging from normative theory to critical theory.
In their individual chapters, the authors explore the concept of transitional justice itself and its foundations, such as reconciliation, memory, and truth, as well as intersections, such as reparations, peace building, and norm compliance.

This book will be of particular interest for scholars and students of law, peace and conflict studies, and human rights studies. Even though highly theoretical, the chapters provide an easy read for a wide audience including readers not familiar with theoretical investigations.” From Publisher’s Website

Trends in the Judiciary: Interviews with Judges Across the Globe, ed. by Dilip K. Das, Cliff Roberson & Michael M. Berlin. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2014. 292p.

“U.S. Supreme Court justices are studied publicly, but scant attention is generally paid to the judges who function daily in other courts of the world. Trends in the Judiciary: Interviews with Judges Across the Globe assembles a collection of interviews conducted by international scholars and researchers. It provides an insider’s perspective of how members of the worldwide judiciary cope with significant legal developments and the issues they face in criminal and procedural law.

The subjects of these interviews administer justice in Australia, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Republic of Slovenia, Canada, India, and the United States. Representing a variety of cultures, political environments, and economic systems, the interviewees each discuss their background, education, and career; their judicial role; the major changes and challenges they have experienced; and the relationship between theory and practice. In addition to the candid observations of the interview subject, each chapter provides a brief portrait of the national judicial system and court in which each judge serves.

Continuing the work of the International Police Executive Symposium (IPES) and the CRC Press series Interviews with Global Leaders in Policing, Courts, and Prisons, the book enhances readers’ understanding of the judiciary and opens a dialogue between scholars, researchers, and practitioners. It is a major contribution to the study and practice of judging around the world.” From Publisher’s Website

Understanding International Law through Moot Courts: Genocide, Torture, Habeas Corpus, Chemical Weapons, and the Responsibility to Protect, by Henry F. Carey & Stacey M. Mitchell. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2014. 386p.

Understanding International Law through Moot Courts: Genocide, Torture, Habeas Corpus, Chemical Weapons, and the Responsibility to Protect consists of five sets of opposing legal briefs and judge’s decisions for five moot court cases held before the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. Each moot court brief included in the book addresses contemporary controversies in international affairs; issues ranging from the application of the newly emerging Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine, to the torture of detainees, to the derogation from international due process protections. These moot court briefs and case judgments help students formulate legal arguments that will be applicable to other similar cases. They also provide students with excellent sources of international and domestic law, as well as greater comprehension of topics ranging from jurisdictional disputes to matters of evidence. Chapter 1 of the book provides an overview of the book as well as instructions regarding the construction of a moot court. Chapter two, by George Andreopoulos discusses the interrelationship between human rights and international criminal law. Chapters 3 through 7 are the cases. The introduction to each chapter (and subsequently each case) lays out the facts of the case in question, discusses (where applicable) issues associated with the material and contextual elements of the crimes(s) in question, provides additional topics for classroom discussion, and also places the issues of contention between the parties within the broader context of foreign affairs and international relations. After each set of briefs and legal judgments is an appendix which includes an example moot court, as well as an appendix that includes a set of alterable facts that students and faculty could adopt to change the general legal argument of the particular case.” From Publisher’s Website

The Watchdog That Didn’t Bark: The Financial Crisis and the Disappearance of Investigative Journalism, by Dean Starkman. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014. 368p.

“In this sweeping, incisive post mortem, Dean Starkman exposes the critical shortcomings that softened coverage in the business press during the mortgage era and the years leading up to the financial collapse of 2008. He locates the roots of the problem in the origin of business news as a market messaging service for investors in the early twentieth century. This access-dependent strain of journalism was soon opposed by the grand, sweeping work of the muckrakers. Propelled by the innovations of Bernard Kilgore, the great postwar editor of the Wall Street Journal, these two genres merged when mainstream American news organizations institutionalized muckraking in the 1960s, creating a powerful guardian of the public interest. Yet as the mortgage era dawned, deep cultural and structural shifts — some unavoidable, some self-inflicted — eroded journalism’s appetite for its role as watchdog. The result was a deafening silence about systemic corruption in the financial industry. Tragically, this silence grew only more profound as the mortgage madness reached its terrible apogee from 2004 through 2006.

Starkman frames his analysis in a broad argument about journalism itself, dividing the profession into two competing approaches — access reporting and accountability reporting — which rely on entirely different sources and produce radically different representations of reality. As Starkman explains, access journalism came to dominate business reporting in the 1990s, a process he calls “CNBCization,” and rather than examining risky, even corrupt, corporate behavior, mainstream reporters focused on profiling executives and informing investors. Starkman concludes with a critique of the digital-news ideology and corporate influence, which threaten to further undermine investigative reporting, and he shows how financial coverage, and journalism as a whole, can reclaim its bite.” From Publisher’s Website

When I Wear My Alligator Boo ts: Narco-Culture in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, by Shaylih Muehlmann. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2014. 240p.

When I Wear My Alligator Boots examines how the lives of dispossessed men and women are affected by the rise of narcotrafficking along the U.S.-Mexico border. In particular, the book explores a crucial tension at the heart of the “war on drugs”: despite the violence and suffering brought on by drug cartels, for the rural poor in Mexico’s north, narcotrafficking offers one of the few paths to upward mobility and is a powerful source of cultural meanings and local prestige.

In the borderlands, traces of the drug trade are everywhere: from gang violence in cities to drug addiction in rural villages, from the vibrant folklore popularized in the narco-corridos of Norteña music to the icon of Jesús Malverde, the “patron saint” of narcos, tucked beneath the shirts of local people. In When I Wear My Alligator Boots, the author explores the everyday reality of the drug trade by living alongside its low-level workers, who live at the edges of the violence generated by the militarization of the war on drugs. Rather than telling the story of the powerful cartel leaders, the book focuses on the women who occasionally make their sandwiches, the low-level businessmen who launder their money, the addicts who consume their products, the mules who carry their money and drugs across borders, and the men and women who serve out prison sentences when their bosses’ operations go awry.” From Publisher’s Website

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