The history of criminal justice in the U.S. is often described as a
pendulum, swinging back and forth between strict punishment and
lenient rehabilitation. While this view is common wisdom, it is
wrong. In Breaking the Pendulum, Philip Goodman, Joshua Page, and
Michelle Phelps systematically debunk the pendulum perspective,
showing that it distorts how and why criminal justice changes. The
pendulum model blinds us to the blending of penal orientations,
policies, and practices, as well as the struggle between actors
that shapes laws, institutions, and how we think about crime,
punishment, and related issues. Through a re-analysis of more than
two hundred years of penal history, starting with the rise of
penitentiaries in the 19th Century and ending with ongoing efforts
to roll back mass incarceration, the authors offer an alternative
approach to conceptualizing penal development. Their agonistic
perspective posits that struggle is the motor force of criminal
justice history. Punishment expands, contracts, and morphs because
of contestation between real people in real contexts, not a
mechanical "swing" of the pendulum. This alternative framework is
far more accurate and empowering than metaphors that ignore or
downplay the importance of struggle in shaping criminal justice.
This clearly written, engaging book is an invaluable resource for
teachers, students, and scholars seeking to understand the past,
present, and future of American criminal justice. By demonstrating
the central role of struggle in generating major transformations,
Breaking the Pendulum encourages combatants to keep fighting to
change the system.
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