There are visible signs that the "get-tough" era of punishment is finally winding down. A "get-smart" agenda has emerged that aims to reduce costs and crime by reducing the incarceration of non-violent drug offenders, expanding use of community-based corrections, revising sentencing structures, and supporting offender re-entry into the community. This change in policy affords an opportunity to re-examine and challenge certain other conventions in the study and practice of punishment. Each chapter of Rethinking Punishment examines a convention and posits arguments that challenge that convention and expand the conversation. These arguments are based on the prior literature, existing and original data, and historical documents. These conventions and arguments for rethinking punishment are framed accordingly: Justifying Penal Policy Defining the Attributes of Punishment Measuring the Scope and Severity of Punishment Evaluating Effectiveness in Punishment Finally, the author provides specific recommendations for research and policy based on these original arguments. Drawing on underlying philosophical, empirical and political issues and offering a critical discussion of the relationship between research, policy and practice, this book makes compelling and instructive reading for students taking courses in criminal justice, corrections, philosophy of punishment, the sociology of punishment, and law and justice.

Crime Victimization: Patterns, Impact, and System Response provides students with an introductory examination of the discipline through the writings of criminologists who have made the crime victim, rather than the perpetrator, the principal subject of their analysis. In Section I, students read about the historical evolution of the victim's rights movement and the recognition of the term "crime victim" in state and federal laws and policies, as well as criminal justice discourse. Section II examines various methods of obtaining data on crime victimization, statistics on the prevalence of certain types of victimization, and the measurement of other victim-related matters such as public fear of crime and risk of crime. Section III addresses typologies and theories of crime that incorporate the victim's behavior and characteristics in explanations of the criminal event. In Section IV, students learn about the dynamics of certain types of victimization and their psychological and financial impacts on victims, their families, and society at large. The final section discusses responses to crime victimization by social services agencies and the criminal justice system. Multidisciplinary in nature, Crime Victimization is well suited for courses in criminal justice, criminology, sociology, public administration, health services, and social work.