Prevent, Repent, Reform, Revenge is a study of the aims that people intend to achieve by the sanctions and treatments they recommend for wrongdoers. The book is designed to answer two main questions: What kind of analytical scheme can profitably reveal the nature of people's reasoning about the aims of sanctions they propose for perpetrators of crimes and misdeeds? In the aims that people express, what changes in overt moral reasoning patterns appear between later childhood and the early adult years? The authors conducted interviews with 136 youths between the ages of 9 and 21 to find out what sanctions and aims they felt were appropriate in three cases of wrongdoing. The resulting information provides an important insight into adolescent moral development. LC 95-16145.

This study analyzes the reasoning process through which individuals determine what consequences are appropriate for those who do wrong. The authors presented six cases of wrongdoing to a large number of teenagers and young adults. This sample was asked what consequences would be appropriate for the wrongdoers and why those proposed consequences would be appropriate. On the basis of the data obtained from the participants, the authors constructed a taxonomy to use in categorizing features of moral reasoning. The authors then applied the taxonomy to compare group and individual modes of moral decision making. The study is significant in its reliance on original data and on its analysis of the thought processes involved in moral decision making.

This book is a wake-up call to the nation dealing with the realities of the lives of young people living in poverty in the inner city. The perspective in unique: it combines the voices of student attending a high school in the Watts community of Los Angeles with current research to create a clearer picture of the lives of people who live in poverty and some of the factors that serve to perpetuate that poverty.