First articulated more than 250 years ago, deterrence remains a central theory in criminology and continues to be the bedrock of the vast bulk of criminal justice policy. But few updates to the original theory of deterrence have been made, and crime-based punishment has only grown tougher, resulting in a historically unprecedented growth in imprisonment and an even greater reliance on deterrence to justify all kinds of punishment. These changes have occurred despite consistent or strong ev...

American Criminal Justice Policy examines many of the most prominent criminal justice policies on the American landscape and finds that they fall well short of achieving the accountability and effectiveness that policymakers have advocated and that the public expects. The policies include mass incarceration, sex offender laws, supermax prisons, faith-based prisoner reentry programs, transfer of juveniles to adult court, domestic violence mandatory arrest laws, drug courts, gun laws, commun...

The need for and the threats to improved public policy are equally acute. Crime policy agenda continues to be driven by anecdotal evidence and political ideology, resulting in a patchwork of programs, policies, and practices. All-too-frequently, the need for them is uncertain, they rest on unclear theoretical foundations, they are implemented poorly, and their effectiveness in preventing or controlling crime, or furthering justice, is unknown. Putting research evidence at center-stage in p...

Written in an accessible style, this book provides a historically grounded critique of American policing and offers implementable solutions, providing students a comprehensive understanding of modern policing.Contemporary policing is in crisis, a situation that has led to persistent calls to reform it. Unfortunately, many proposed solutions focus on piecemeal changes that ignore a fundamental problem—policing relies on a largely reactive approach that does not in an...

How to think about, conduct, and evaluate research is fundamental to the study and understanding of criminology and criminal justice. Students take methods, statistics, theory, and topic-specific classes, but they struggle to integrate what they learn and to see how it fits within the broader field of criminology and criminal justice research. This book directly tackles this problem by helping students to develop a 'researcher sensibility', and demonstrates how the 'nuts and bolts' of crim...

Out-of-Control Criminal Justice shows that our system of criminal justice is broken; it is out of control. The author writes that a research-based strategy is needed that builds on the insights of those who work within criminal justice or are affected by it. Such a strategy must entail continuous evaluation and improvement, so that what works can be expanded and what does not can be eliminated. Out-of-Control Criminal Justice identifies how systems problems plague our criminal justice syst...

Understanding and Improving Prisoner Reentry Outcomes"Mass imprisonment and mass prisoner reentry are two faces of the same coin. In a comprehensive and penetrating analysis, Daniel Mears and Joshua Cochran unravel the causes of this pressing problem, detail the challenges confronting released prisoners, and provide an evidence-based blueprint for successfully reintegrating offenders into the community. Scholarly yet accessible, this volume is essentia...