Full Reviews - 2016 - Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Book Reviews

CRIMINAL LAW and
CRIMINAL JUSTICE BOOKS

Full Reviews
2016

Previous Editions

September

Deported: Immigrant Policing, Disposable Labor, and Global Capitalism

Author: Tanya Maria Golash-Boza
Publisher: New York: New York University Press, 2015. 320p.
Reviewer: Vincent Ferraro | September 2016

Deported: Immigrant Policing, Disposable Labor, and Global Capitalism, by Tanya Maria Golash-Boza is certainly a timely addition to the literature, coming as it does amidst a national debate about immigration, illegal aliens, and deportation. The book is reviewed for us by Vincent Ferraro, who says it is “is a welcome addition to studies of immigration, social control, global capitalism, and especially the growing body of work on deportation.” Golash-Boza’s conclusions that contemporary U.S. deportation policy functions neither to end immigration nor to remove all deportable persons, but instead effectively reproduces systems of inequality on a global scale, are nothing if not controversial.

Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Authors: Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik
Publisher: New York: Dey Street Books, 2015. 240p.
Reviewer: Jack E. Call | September 2016

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has a particular connection to Rutgers University, having once been a law professor here. The somewhat oddly titled Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik (the title is explained by the way), is one of several recent books looking at the life and times and impact of Justice Ginsburg. Reviewer Jack Call generally praises the book as a valuable source of humorous and moving stories about Justice Ginsburg that humanize her, but that at the same time sheds light on the critically important role that Ginsburg played in, for example, the fights for women’s rights and against gender discrimination.

The al-Qaeda Franchise: The Expansion of al-Qaeda and Its Consequences

Author: Barak Mendelsohn
Publisher: New York; Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2016. 288p.
Reviewer: Isaac Kfir | September 2016

Another very timely book in this issue is Barak Mendelsohn’s The al-Qaeda Franchise: The Expansion of al-Qaeda and Its Consequences. Mendelsohn argues that the international terrorist organization called al-Qaeda is currently seeking to expand by means of what he calls a franchising strategy, i.e., by linking with or farming out activities to various other organizations in different parts of the world. Our reviewer, Isaac Kfir, says that “Mendelsohn seeks to show that the franchising strategy has not made al-Qaeda more dangerous nor stronger, but rather has weakened it, as it has had to adapt to local conditions and demands.” Kfir takes issue with this conclusion in his review.

The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America

Author: Barry Latzer
Publisher: New York: Encounter Books, 2016. 424p.
Reviewer: Sam Bieler | September 2016

Samuel Bieler has written numerous reviews for this online journal, and has done so again here with his assessment of Barry Latzer’s The Rise and Fall of Violent Crime in America. Bieler points to Latzer’s core argument being “that a subculture of violence in Black communities plays an underappreciated role in understanding America’s violent crime trends.” There is nothing unique or unusual in making that argument, but as Bieler indicates, Latzer extends his argument to suggest that this same subculture played an important role in driving both the dramatic rise in violent crime in the 1960s and 70s and in its subsequent precipitous fall. Needless to say, this is a controversial thesis, but then Barry Latzer has never been shy about wading into such controversies.

Cartels, Markets and Crime: A Normative Justification for the Criminalisation of Economic Collusion

Author: Bruce Wardhaugh
Publisher: New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2014. 376p.
Reviewer: Brent Fisse | September 2016

Are we justified in applying criminal sanctions to individuals who participate in cartel behavior? In Cartels, Markets and Crime, Bruce Wardaugh seeks to offer a liberal, normative justification for the criminal law of economic collusion that exists in a range of Western jurisdictions, relating it to various conceptions of social justice, particularly that developed by John Rawls. Our reviewer, Brent Fisse, found the book an “interesting,” if ultimately unpersuasive, counterweight to the law and economics approach that tends to dominate the field.

White Privilege and Black Rights: The Injustice of U.S. Police Racial Profiling and Homicide

Author: Naomi Zack
Publisher: Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. 154p.
Reviewer: Peter A. Hanink | September 2016

Understanding Ponzi Schemes: Can Better Financial Regulation Prevent Investors from Being Defrauded?

Author: Mervyn K. Lewis
Publisher: Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015. 190p.
Reviewers: Yiyan Li and Hongming Cheng | September 2016

Women and Capital Punishment in the United States: An Analytical History

Author: David V. Baker
Publisher: Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2016. 440p.
Reviewer: Ben Stickle | September 2016

State Crime, Women and Gender

Author: Victoria E. Collins
Publisher: London; New York: Routledge, 2016. 238p.
Reviewer: Kimberly M. Pitts | September 2016

Responding to Human Trafficking: Sex, Gender, and Culture in Law

Author: Alicia W. Peters
Publisher: Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015. 244p.
Reviewer: Barbara Ann Stolz | September 2016

Race and the Death Penalty: The Legacy of McCleskey v. Kemp

Editors: David P. Keys and R. J. Maratea
Publisher: Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2016. 219p.
Reviewer: Tim Lyman | September 2016

Place Matters: Criminology for the Twenty-First Century

Authors: David Weisburd, John E. Eck, Anthony Braga, Cody W. Telep, Breanne Cave, et al.
Publisher: New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. 200p.
Reviewer: Joseph Margulies | September 2016

I Ask for Justice: Maya Women, Dictators, and Crime in Guatemala, 1898-1944

Author: David Carey Jr.
Publisher: Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2013. 363p.
Reviewer: Gema Santamaría | September 2016

Dying From Improvement: Inquests and Inquiries into Indigenous Deaths in Custody

Author: Sherene H. Razack
Publisher: Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015. 328p.
Reviewer: Jane Dickson | September 2016

Disrupting Criminal Networks: Network Analysis in Crime Prevention

Editors: Gisela Bichler and Aili E. Malm
Publisher: Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2015. 282p.
Reviewer: Anita Lavorgna | September 2016

Bernard Madoff and His Accomplices: Anatomy of a Con

Author: Lionel S. Lewis
Publisher: Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2016. 397p.
Reviewer: Denis Collins | September 2016

A History of Political Murder in Latin America: Killing the Messengers of Change

Author: W. John Green
Publisher: Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2015. 382p.
Reviewer: Kimberly M. Pitts | September 2016

Taming the Presumption of Innocence

Author: Richard Lippke
Publisher: New York; Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2016. 286p.
Reviewer: Sandra G. Mayson | September 2016

Youth Street Gangs: A Critical Appraisal

Author: David C. Brotherton
Publisher: London; New York: Routledge, 2015. 228p.
Reviewer: Robert J. Durán | May 2016

Liberalizing Lynching: Building a New Racialized State

Author:Daniel Kato
Publisher: New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. 232p.
Reviewer: Christopher C. Lovett | May 2016

Understanding Street Culture: Poverty, Crime, Youth and Cool

Author: Jonathan Ilan
Publisher: Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 216p.
Reviewer: Lorine A. Hughes | May 2016

The Governance of Female Drug Users: Women’s Experiences of Drug Policy

Author: Natasha Du Rose
Publisher: Bristol, UK: Policy Press (distributed in the U.S. by University of Chicago Press), 2015. 224p.
Reviewer: Nancy D. Campbell | May 2016

The Devil You Know: The Surprising Link between Conservative Christianity and Crime

Author: Elicka Peterson Sparks
Publisher: Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2016. 330p.
Reviewer: Barry Latzer | May 2016

Safety and Security in Transit Environments: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Editors: Vania Ceccato and Andrew Newton
Publisher: Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 390p.
Reviewer: Brandon Kooi | May 2016

Race, Place, and Suburban Policing: Too Close for Comfort

Author: Andrea S. Boyles
Publisher: Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2015. 268p.
Reviewer: Jonathon A. Cooper | May 2016

Research Handbook on International Law and Cyberspace

Editors: Nicholas Tsagourias and Russell Buchan
Publisher: Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015. 552p.
Reviewer: Peter Grabosky | May 2016

Protecting Our Kids? How Sex Offender Laws Are Failing Us

Author: Emily Horowitz
Publisher: Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2015. 181p.
Reviewers: David Patrick Connor and Tia Michelle Squires | May 2016

“No One Helped”: Kitty Genovese, New York City, and the Myth of Urban Apathy

Author:Marcia M. Gallo
Publisher: Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2015. 240p.
Reviewer: Jennifer K. Wood | May 2016

Law and the Modern Mind: Consciousness and Responsibility in American Legal Culture

Author: Susanna L. Blumenthal
Publisher: Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016. 400p.
Reviewer: Chloë Kennedy | May 2016

From Cuba with Love: Sex and Money in the Twenty-First Century

Author: Megan Daigle
Publisher: Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2015. 276p.
Reviewer: Corinne Schwarz | May 2016

Faces Like Devils: The Bald Knobber Vigilantes in the Ozarks

Author: Matthew J. Hernando
Publisher: Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2015. 313p.
Reviewer: J. Blake Perkins | May 2016

Exiting Prostitution: A Study in Female Desistance

Authors: Roger Matthews, Helen Easton, Lisa Young & Julie Bindel
Publisher: London; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 162p.
Reviewer: A. N. Cimino | May 2016

Delivering Rehabilitation: The Politics, Governance and Control of Probation

Authors: Lol Burke and Steve Collett
Publisher: London; New York: Routledge, 2015. 200p.
Reviewer: Gwen Robinson | May 2016

Why Torture Doesn’t Work: The Neuroscience of Interrogation

Author: Shane O’Mara
Publisher: Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015. 336 p.
Reviewer: William J. Aceves | May 2016

Actor-Network Theory and Crime Studies: Explorations in Science and Technology

Authors: Dominique Robert and Martin Dufresne
Publisher: Farnham, UK; Ashgate (Routledge), 2015. 160p.
Reviewer: Wytske van der Wagen | May 2016

Defending the Jury: Crime, Community, and the Constitution

Author: Laura I. Appleman
Publisher: New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. 241p.
Reviewer: Stephanos Bibas | May 2016

Comparing Tort and Crime: Learning from across and within Legal Systems

Editor: Matthew Dyson
Publisher: Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015. 558p.
Reviewer: Marta Infantino | May 2016

The Witch-Hunt Narrative: Politics, Psychology, and the Sexual Abuse of Children

Author: Ross Cheit
Publisher: Oxford, UK; New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. 544p.
Reviewer: Nancy Whittier | March 2016

Unraveling Tort and Crime

Editor: Matthew Dyson
Publisher: Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. 466p.
Reviewer: Youngjae Lee | March 2016

The Incarceration of Women: Punishing Bodies, Breaking Spirits

Authors: Linda Moore and Phil Scraton
Publisher: Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 256p.
Reviewer: Annie Rose Crowley | March 2016

The Eternal Criminal Record

Author: James Jacobs
Publisher: Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014. 416p.
Reviewers: Shawn Bushway and Megan Denver | March 2016

The Criminal Act: The Role and Influence of Routine Activity Theory

Editors: M.A. Andresen & G. Farrell
Publisher: Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 273p.
Reviewer: Danielle M. Reynald | March 2016

Street Sex Work and Canadian Cities: Resisting a Dangerous Order

Author: Shawna Ferris
Publisher: Edmonton, Alberta: The University of Alberta Press, 2015. 272p.
Reviewer: Erin Gibbs Van Brunschot | March 2016

Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World

Author: Linda Hirshman
Publisher: New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2015. 421p.
Reviewer: Jack E. Call | March 2016

Offending and Desistance: The Importance of Social Relations

Author: Beth Weaver
Publisher: London; New York: Routledge, 2016. 274p.
Reviewer: April Bernard | March 2016

Public Indecency in England 1857-1960: ‘A Serious and Growing Evil’

Authors: David J. Cox, Kim Stevenson, Candida Harris, and Judith Rowbotham
Publisher: London: Routledge, 2015. 216p.
Reviewer: Paul Jennings | March 2016

John Paul Stevens: Defender of Rights in Criminal Justice

Author: Christopher E. Smith
Publisher: Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2015. 285p.
Reviewer: Craig Hemmens | March 2016

Histories of Transnational Crime

Editor: Gerben Bruinsma
Publisher: New York: Springer, 2015. 188p.
Reviewer: Philip L. Reichel | March 2016

Football’s Dark Side: Corruption, Homophobia, Violence and Racism in the Beautiful Game

Authors: Ellis Cashmore and Jamie Cleland
Publisher: Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 106p.
Reviewer: Stuart Waiton | March 2016

Criminology and War: Transgressing the Borders

Editors: Sandra Walklate and Ross McGarry
Publisher: Abingdon, Oxon, UK; New York: Routledge, 2015. 232p.
Reviewer: Teresa Degenhardt | March 2016

Copping Out: The Consequences of Police Corruption and Misconduct

Author: Anthony Stanford
Publisher: Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2015. 176p.
Reviewer: Peter A. Hanink | March 2016

A Country Called Prison

Authors: Mary D. Looman and John D. Carl
Publisher: New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. 232p.
Reviewer: Steven Block | March 2016

Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel: The Gangster, the Flamingo, and the Making of Modern Las Vegas

Author: Larry D. Gragg
Publisher: Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2015. 200p.
Reviewer: Jay Albanese | January 2016

A New Juvenile Justice System: Total Reform for a Broken System

Editor: Nancy E. Dowd
Publisher: New York: New York University Press, 2015. 400p.
Reviewer: Jennifer H. Peck | January 2016

Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics

Author: Marie Gottschalk
Publisher: Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015. 474p.
Reviewer: Robert C. Hauhart | January, 2016

In Cold Storage: Sex and Murder on the Plains

Author: James W. Hewitt
Publisher: Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2015. 160p.
Reviewer: Melanie Clark Mogavero | January 2016

Pan-African Issues in Drugs and Drug Control: An International Perspective

Editor: Anita Kalunta-Crumpton
Publisher: Farnham, Surrey, UK: Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2015. 416p.
Reviewer: Joanne Csete | January 2016

Policing Sexuality: The Mann Act and the Making of the FBI

Author: Jessica R. Pliley
Publisher: Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014. 304p.
Reviewer: Jim Leitzel | January 2016

Power and Crime

Author: Vincenzo Ruggiero
Publisher: London; New York: Routledge, 2015. 182p.
Reviewer: Paul R. Schupp | January 2016

Punishment in Popular Culture

Editors: Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. and Austin Sarat
Publisher: New York: New York University Press, 2015. 320p.
Reviewer: Mary Welek Atwell | January 2016

Responding to Youth Crime in Hong Kong: Penal Elitism, Legitimacy and Citizenship

Author: Michael Adorjan and Wing-Hong Chiu
Publisher: London; New York: Routledge, 2014. 178p.
Reviewer: Leona Lee | January 2016

Sex in Prison: Myths and Realities

Editors: Catherine D. Marcum and Tammy L. Castle.
Publisher: Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2013. 191p.
Reviewer: Amber L. Morczek | January 2016

Suspect Race: Causes and Consequences of Racial Profiling

Author: Jack Glaser
Publisher: New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. 280p.
Reviewers: Joe Feagin | January 2016

The Common Language of Homicide and Suicide: Evidence of the Value of Durkheim’s Typologies

Author: J. Michael Bozeman
Publisher: El Paso, TX: LFB Scholarly Publishing, LLC, 2014. 310p.
Reviewer: Melanie Clark Mogavero | January 2016

The Corporate Criminal: Why Corporations Must Be Abolished

Authors: Steve Tombs and David Whyte
Publisher: Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge, 2015. 216p.
Reviewer: David O. Friedrichs | January 2016

The History of Street Gangs in the United States: Their Origins and Transformations

Author: James C. Howell
Publisher: Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2015. 178p.
Reviewer: James A. Densley | January 2016

The Sequential Intercept Model and Criminal Justice: Promoting Community Alternatives For Individuals With Serious Mental Illness

Editors: Patricia A. Griffin, Kirk Heilbrun, Edward P. Mulvey, David DeMatteo, and Carol A. Schubert
Publisher: Oxford, UK; New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. 320p.
Reviewer: Colleen Clark | January 2016

Violence All Around

Author: John Sifton
Publisher: Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015. 336p.
Reviewer: Jared Del Rosso | January 2016

Violence at the Urban Margins

Authors: Javier Auyero, Philippe Bourgois, and Nancy Scheper-Hughes
Publisher: New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. 352p.
Reviewer: Eduardo Moncada | January 2016