NCJ Number
182039
Editor(s)
James F. Hodgson
Date Published
1998
Length
214 pages
Annotation
These nine articles critically examine the current crime control policies of the United States and Canada and present alternatives to the existing criminal justice system, with emphasis on crime as a community problem that requires solutions within the community and not through an over-reliance on the criminal justice system.
Abstract
The analyses focus on the concept of social justice versus social control. They explore ways to control or reduce crime beyond hiring more police officers and building more prisons and suggest that the appropriate policy is one that addresses social injustices such as poverty, racial disharmony, gender inequality, illiteracy, homelessness, and unemployment. Individual chapters link traditional sociology and concerns with social justice, examines the concept of what is called the American dream and its relationship to social justice, and presents statistics demonstrating that crime rates are declining in the United States. Additional chapters highlight the injustices resulting from punitive social control policies, argues that preventive strategies may be effective in reducing crime, critically examine the rhetoric of the community corrections approach, and discuss pornography as a civil rights issue for women. The final two papers discuss the problems of establishing social justice for women who work in police agencies and other male-dominated public-sector organizations and consider the debate between criminal or retributive justice and social or restorative justice. Figures; tables; and chapter discussion questions, notes, and reference lists