The Future of Crime and Punishment

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY MAY 9, 2016

Sociology professor Kelly (Criminal Justice at the Crossroads: Transforming Crime and Punishment) provides a well-reasoned, if familiar, critique of the American criminal justice system, along with thoughtful prescriptions for revolutionary reform. Despite the trillions the U.S. has spent over the last four decades on criminal justice and the war on drugs, crime has not been significantly reduced. For Kelly, that failure is inextricably linked with the system's focus on punishment, which often includes incarceration, as a response to criminal behavior. Such policies ignore many reasons for criminality, including substance abuse, mental illness, and poor education, and Kelly is persuasive in describing how "behavior change interventions... can reduce crime, recidivism, victimization, and cost." His balanced approach, which includes an understanding of the historical and societal forces that led to the Nixon-era War on Crime and its successor approaches, offers much food for thought. But despite his warning of the consequences of a failure for true reform, he is aware that realistically its prospects are uncertain, and he ultimately hangs his hopes on analyses that show that such changes could "save tremendous amounts of tax dollars" rather than humanitarian pleas. This is an accessible introduction to the subject for newcomers; others may find it mostly retreads well-covered ground.