This book provides the most realistic, introductory overview of criminal justice in America that I have ever seen. As a witness, student, and teacher of issues related to this field for many years, I have been consistently dismayed by the shallowness and lack of substantive material found in other works of this type. As well as what one would expect from such a book (e.g., explanations of the law, police, courts, theories of crime, how it is measured etc.), Shelden and Brown portray how criminal justice is affected by the politics, economics, and ideological underpinnings of the wider society and how these larger social forces are translated into the lives of real human beings. They do an excellent job of dispelling many of the popular myths that have helped create definitions of criminality, as well as legitimate what the system does as a response (e.g., all gang members or drug users are threatening and, therefore, deserve imprisonment). Ultimately, they illustrate how law and the system it upholds benefit some (the well off) at the expense of others (the poor and disadvantaged). Their extensive efforts give us a critical, well researched account of a system that is in dire need of change. Alternative conceptions of justice and viable solutions for change are, in fact, what they leave us with at the conclusion of their book. I give this book my highest recommendations.
Chuck Terry
St. Louis University
Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice