Chronicles of a Radical Criminologist

Download Chronicles of a Radical Criminologist PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Rutgers University Press
ISBN 13 : 1978814143
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (788 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Chronicles of a Radical Criminologist by : Gregg Barak

Download or read book Chronicles of a Radical Criminologist written by Gregg Barak and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-15 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past five decades, prominent criminologist Gregg Barak has worked as an author, editor, and book review editor; his large body of work has been grounded in traditional academic prose. His new book, Chronicles of a Radical Criminologist, while remaining scholarly in its intent, departs from the typical academic format. The book is a a first-person account that examines the linkages between one scholar's experiences as a criminologist from the late 1960s to the present and the emergence and evolution of radical criminology as a challenge to developments in mainstream criminology. Barak draws upon his own experiences over this half-century as a window into the various debates and issues among radical, critical, and technocratic criminologies. In doing so, he revisits his own seminal works, showing how they reflect those periods of criminological development. What holds this book together is the story of how resisting the crimes of the powerful while struggling locally for social justice is the essence of critical criminology. His seven chapters are divided into three parts—academic freedom, academic activism, and academic praxis—and these connected stories link the author's own academic career in Berkeley, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Chicago; Alabama; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and across the United States. Barak's eventful scholarly life involved efforts to overcome laws against abortion and homosexuality; to formalize protective practices for women from domestic violence and sexual assault; to oppose racism and classism in the criminal justice system; to challenge the wars on gangs, drugs, and immigrants; and to confront the policies of mass incarceration and the treatment of juvenile offenders.

Corrupt Capital

Download Corrupt Capital PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0429589379
Total Pages : 235 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (295 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Corrupt Capital by : Kenneth Sebastian León

Download or read book Corrupt Capital written by Kenneth Sebastian León and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-09-22 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a deep dive into the social, political, and economic forces that make white-collar crime and corruption a staple feature of the nightlife economy. The author, a former bouncer-turned-bartender of party bars and nightclubs in a large U.S. city, draws from an auto-ethnographic case study to describe and explain the routine and embedded nature of corruption and deviance among the regulators and the regulated in the nightlife environment. This text offers a contemporary and incisive theoretical framework on the criminogenic features and structural contradictions of capitalism. The author both describes and explains how the dominant political economy is rife with structural contradictions that, in turn, generate various manifestations of white-collar crime, organizational deviance, and public corruption. The author uses the bar and nightlife environment to empirically anchor these claims. Methodologically, the research is innovative in advancing inquiry into ethically and logistically challenging environments. The style of writing and framing of the text is one that punches upward and avoids the voyeuristic and reductionist tropes historically associated with "dangerous fieldwork." Through a range of disciplinary perspectives, Corrupt Capital offers both scholarly rigor and inviting prose to advance our understanding of crimes of the relatively powerful and powerless alike. An accessible and compelling text, this book will appeal to readers in criminology, sociology, law and society, political science, and all those interested in learning about the relationship between power, law, and routinized corruption in the nightlife economy.

Critical Criminology Today

Download Critical Criminology Today PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000421015
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (4 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Critical Criminology Today by : Vincenzo Ruggiero

Download or read book Critical Criminology Today written by Vincenzo Ruggiero and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-08-10 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What survives of the notions, principles and values of critical criminology? Faced with contexts that could not be more dramatically different to those fostering critical approaches to crime and its control, what is left of the radical theories and practical initiatives that characterized it in the 1970s? This book argues that critical criminology today can be reimagined if new concepts are elaborated, which bring academic efforts close to the practices of social movements. Building on an original collection of anti-hegemonic essays focused on specific criminological areas, including femicide, organized crime, drug use, punishment, state-corporate terrorism and financial crime, this book identifies the radical potential inherent in the choice of areas, topics and variables that critical criminologists can address today. In discussing concepts of distance, power, mercy and troublemaking, this book considers the relationship between critical criminology, social justice and activism. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to all those engaged with critical criminology, sociology and cultural studies.

Fieldnotes on a Study of Young People’s Perceptions of Crime and Justice

Download Fieldnotes on a Study of Young People’s Perceptions of Crime and Justice PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1351374168
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (513 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Fieldnotes on a Study of Young People’s Perceptions of Crime and Justice by : Avi Brisman

Download or read book Fieldnotes on a Study of Young People’s Perceptions of Crime and Justice written by Avi Brisman and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-07-25 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an ethnographic examination of the young people who serve voluntarily as judges, advocates and other court personnel at the Red Hook Youth Court (RHYC) in Brooklyn, New York—a juvenile diversion program designed to prevent the formal processing of juvenile offenders—usually first-time offenders—for low-level offenses (such as fare evasion, truancy, vandalism) within the juvenile justice system. Focusing on the nine-to-ten-week long unpaid training program that the young people undergo prior to becoming RHYC members, this book offers a detailed description of young people’s experiences learning about crime, delinquency, justice, and law. Combining moments of self-reflection and autobiographical elements into largely "uncooked" fieldnotes, the book seeks to demonstrate the hegemonic operations of a court (the Red Hook Community Justice Center (RHCJC)—a multi-jurisdictional problem-solving court and community center where the RHYC is housed), the processes in which it secures belief in formal justice and the rule of law, ensures consent to be governed, and reproduces existing social structures. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, law, sociology, and youth justice, as well as to those undertaking ethnographic research on young people, crime and justice.

Criminology on Trump

Download Criminology on Trump PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000584550
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (5 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Criminology on Trump by : Gregg Barak

Download or read book Criminology on Trump written by Gregg Barak and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-05-16 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Criminology on Trump is a criminological investigation of the world’s most successful outlaw, Donald J. Trump. Over the course of five decades, Donald Trump has been accused of sexual assault, tax evasion, money laundering, non-payment of employees, and the defrauding of tenants, customers, contractors, investors, bankers, and charities. Yet, he has continued to amass wealth and power. In this book, criminologist and social historian Gregg Barak asks why and how? This book examines how the United States precariously maintains stability through conflict in which groups with competing interests and opposing visions struggle for power, negotiate rule breaking, and establish criminal justice. While primarily focused on Trump’s developing character over three quarters of a century, it is also an inquiry into the changing cultural character and social structure of American society. It explores the ways in which both crime and crime control are socially constructed in relation to a changing political economy. An accessible and compelling read, this book is essential for all those who seek a criminological understanding of Donald Trump’s rise to power.

Doing Public Scholarship

Download Doing Public Scholarship PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1003825052
Total Pages : 174 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (38 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Doing Public Scholarship by : Christopher J. Schneider

Download or read book Doing Public Scholarship written by Christopher J. Schneider and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-12-05 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A basic premise of public scholarship is making academic work and related ideas accessible and available to publics. Media engagement, whether interviews with news journalists, or the use of hashtags, is a necessary feature of any public scholarship. Media formats play a fundamental and interactive role in how people ultimately come to view and understand the social world, having had a discernable influence on election outcomes, responses to global pandemics, and so on. The question is not whether scholars should engage with media but how to do so. Drawing on fifteen years of experience that includes hundreds of print, radio, and television news interviews, dozens of published opinion pieces, and the use of social media for public engagement, this book outlines a practical, easy-to-follow approach to doing public sociology in media that consists of, and brings together, interrelated forms of media engagement. This book also offers some advice pertaining to career advancement and provides strategies to avoid negative experiences. Doing Public Scholarship will be of general interest to those wanting to go public with their research.

Unchecked Corporate Power

Download Unchecked Corporate Power PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1317360532
Total Pages : 213 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (173 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Unchecked Corporate Power by : Gregg Barak

Download or read book Unchecked Corporate Power written by Gregg Barak and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-02-03 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why are crimes of the suite punished more leniently than crimes of the street? When police killings of citizens go unpunished, political torture is sanctioned by the state, and the financial frauds of Wall Street traders remain unprosecuted, nothing succeeds with such regularity as the active failures of national states to obstruct the crimes of the powerful. Written from the perspective of global sustainability and as an unflinching and unforgiving exposé of the full range of the crimes of the powerful, Unchecked Corporate Power reveals how legalized authorities and political institutions charged with the duty of protecting citizens from law-breaking and injurious activities have increasingly become enablers and colluders with the very enterprises they are obliged to regulate. Here, Gregg Barak explains why the United States and other countries are duplicitous in their harsh reactions to street crimes in comparison to the significantly more harmful and far-reaching crimes of the powerful, and why the crimes of the powerful are treated as beyond incrimination. What happens to nations that surrender ever-growing economic and political power to the globally super rich and the mammoth multinational corporations they control? And what can people from around the world do to resist the criminality and victimization perpetrated by multinationals, and generated by the prevailing global political economy? Barak examines an array of multinational crimes—corporate, environmental, financial, and state—and their state-legal responses, and outlines policies and strategies for revolutionizing these contradictory relations of capital reproduction, criminality, and unsustainability.

Radical Criminology 3

Download Radical Criminology 3 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780615965796
Total Pages : 132 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (657 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Radical Criminology 3 by : Radical Criminology

Download or read book Radical Criminology 3 written by Radical Criminology and published by . This book was released on 2014-02-11 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Radical Criminology, edited by Jeff Shantz [Kwantlen Polytecnic University, Vancouver, British Columbia], is dedicated to bridging the gap between the academy and the global activist community, especially with regard to state violence, state-corporate crime, the growth of surveillance regimes, and the prison-industrial complex. More pointedly, the journal aims to be not simply a project of critique, but is also geared toward a praxis of struggle, insurgence, and practical resistance. Issue 3 (Winter 2014) includes: EDITORIAL / Jeff Shantz, "Neither Justice nor Crime (We Are All Criminals Now)" -- FEATURES/Nicholas Chagnon, "Heinous Crime or Acceptable Violence? The Disparate Framing of Femicides in Hawai'ii -- Tage Alalehto, "Ivar Kreuger: An International Swindler of Magnitude" -- ARTS/"Art Against Extraction Industries, feat. cover artist Fanny Aishaa, + Likhts'amisyu hereditary chief Toghestiy, Gord Hill +more" -- INSURGENCIES/Christopher Petrella, "The Color of Corporate Corrections, Part II: Contractual Exemptions and the Overrepresentation of People of Color in Private Prisons" -- Aiyana Ormond, "Jaywalking to Jail: Capitalism, mass incarceration and social control on the streets of Vancouver" -- Vicki Chartrand, "Tears 4 Justice and the Missing and Murdered Women and Children Across Canada: An Interview with Gladys Radek" -- BOOK REVIEWS/"Drawing the Line Once Again" (by Paul Goodman), reviewed by Jeff Shantz

Radical Criminology

Download Radical Criminology PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780835748100
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (481 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Radical Criminology by : James A. Inciardi

Download or read book Radical Criminology written by James A. Inciardi and published by . This book was released on with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: '...each chapter in this anthology cleary is excellent...a reading of Radical Criminology: The Coming Crises should be high on the agenda of almost any criminologist.' -- The Social Science Journal, Vol 20 No 2, April 1983

Radical Criminology 2

Download Radical Criminology 2 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780615877570
Total Pages : 174 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (775 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Radical Criminology 2 by : Radical Criminology

Download or read book Radical Criminology 2 written by Radical Criminology and published by . This book was released on 2013-09 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Radical Criminology, edited by Jeff Shantz [Kwantlen Polytecnic University, Vancouver, British Columbia], is dedicated to bridging the gap between the academy and the global activist community, especially with regard to state violence, state-corporate crime, the growth of surveillance regimes, and the prison-industrial complex. More pointedly, the journal aims to be not simply a project of critique, but is also geared toward a praxis of struggle, insurgence, and practical resistance. Issue 2 includes: EDITORIAL/Jeff Shantz, "In Defense of Radicalism" -- FEATURES/Michael Loadenthal, "The Earth Liberation Front" -- Angie Ng, "Fighting Inequality in Hong Kong: Lessons Learned from Occupy Hong Kong" -- ARTS/pj lilley, "Art Through a Birch Bark Heart: An Illustrated Interview with Erin Marie Konsmo" -- "Profiles: Families of Sisters in Spirit & Native Youth Sexual Health Network" -- Marc James Leger, "Globalization and the Politics of Culture: An Interview with Imre Szeman" -- INSURGENCIES/Ivan Greenberg, "Everyone is a Terrorist Now: Marginalizing Protest in the U.S." -- Christopher Petrella and Josh Begley, "The Color of Corporate Corrections: The Overrepresentation of People of Color in the For-Profit Corrections Industry" -- BOOK REVIEWS/"The Criminal's Handbook: A Practical Guide to Surviving Arrest in Canada" (C.W. Michael), reviewed by Tom C. Allen -- "The Anti-Capitalist Resistance Comic Book" (Gord Hill), reviewed by Mike Larsen -- "State Power and Democracy: Before and During the Presidency of George W. Bush" (Andrew Kolin), reviewed by G.G. Preparata -- "Defying the Tomb" (Kevin "Rashid" Johnson), reviewed by Jeff Shantz

A Primer in Radical Criminology

Download A Primer in Radical Criminology PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 140 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Primer in Radical Criminology by : Michael J. Lynch

Download or read book A Primer in Radical Criminology written by Michael J. Lynch and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contents of this book include the Marxist theories on state and law, the radical concept of crime, incipient radicalism: conflict and labeling approaches, the causes of crime: a radical view, traditional contributions to radical criminology, the radical perspective on policing, the American court system: a justice model, a critical interpretation of punishment and corrections,and the policy implications of the radical position.

Falling Back

Download Falling Back PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Rutgers University Press
ISBN 13 : 0813560756
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (135 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Falling Back by : Jamie J. Fader

Download or read book Falling Back written by Jamie J. Fader and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jamie J. Fader documents the transition to adulthood for a particularly vulnerable population: young inner-city men of color who have, by the age of eighteen, already been imprisoned. How, she asks, do such precariously situated youth become adult men? What are the sources of change in their lives? Falling Back is based on over three years of ethnographic research with black and Latino males on the cusp of adulthood and incarcerated at a rural reform school designed to address “criminal thinking errors” among juvenile drug offenders. Fader observed these young men as they transitioned back to their urban Philadelphia neighborhoods, resuming their daily lives and struggling to adopt adult masculine roles. This in-depth ethnographic approach allowed her to portray the complexities of human decision-making as these men strove to “fall back,” or avoid reoffending, and become productive adults. Her work makes a unique contribution to sociological understandings of the transitions to adulthood, urban social inequality, prisoner reentry, and desistance from offending.

Radical Criminology 6

Download Radical Criminology 6 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780998237527
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (375 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Radical Criminology 6 by : Critical Criminology Working Group

Download or read book Radical Criminology 6 written by Critical Criminology Working Group and published by . This book was released on 2016-11-07 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Radical Criminology, edited by Jeff Shantz [Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Vancouver, British Columbia], is dedicated to bridging the gap between the academy and the global activist community, especially with regard to state violence, state-corporate crime, the growth of surveillance regimes, and the prison-industrial complex. More pointedly, the journal aims to be not simply a project of critique, but is also geared toward a praxis of struggle, insurgence, and practical resistance. Issue 6 (Autumn 2016) is a special issue on "Insurgent Criminology in a Period of Open Social War" edited by Jeff Shantz. The struggles of the present period are stripping the cover off of policing as military institutions for social war waged against the working class-especially the racialized and poorest sectors-in defense of statist management, capitalist ownership, and wealth accumulation. The police are increasingly revealed as agents of pacification and regulation (as they have always been) rather than of public safety or security. Yet, there is an insurgent criminology-lively, engaged, informed, vital, analytical, honest, brave-emerging not in the halls of the academy nor in the sessions of academic conferences but rather in the streets and neighborhoods of those who are targeted by the state for ongoing punishment, repression, and violence. That insurgency is bringing with it important critiques of criminal justice as well as the beginnings of compelling challenges and alternatives, moving through and beyond reformist demands. One of the most important and promising developments has been the posing and pondering of alternatives to policing and the raising of abolitionist perspectives, responses, and projects. These are the voices academic criminology must hear and must heed. And the movements they must support as active allies, even more as accomplices and public defenders. FEATURES: A Radical Grounding for Social Disorganization Theory: A Political Economic Investigation of the Causes of Poverty, Inequality and Crime in Urban Areas [Michael Lynch & Lyndsay N. Boggess] Coercive Occupations as State Facilitation: Understanding the U.S. State's Strategy of Control [Vince Montes] Squatting in Racialized Berlin 1975-2015: Vietnamese Transnational Subjectivity in a Climactic Double Division [Trangdai Glassey-Tranguyen] Social Control and Security in Times of Crisis: The Criminalization of the Seropositive Women in Greece [Maria Gkresta and Manuel Mireanu] Making Sense of Repression in Police Studies: Whither Theorizing in the Descent Toward Fascism [Tamari Kitossa] ARTWORKS: Selected Images and Commentary from ArtACT QC "All Eyes are Upon Us" (Poem) [Gene Grabiner] BOOK REVIEWS: "Crashing the Party: Legacies and Lessons from the RNC 2000" by Kris Hermes [Reviewed by Irina Ceric] "Who Killed the Berkeley School? Struggles over Radical Criminology" by Herman & Julia Schwendinger [Reviewed by Aaron Philip]

Critique and Radical Discourses on Crime

Download Critique and Radical Discourses on Crime PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 9781138736115
Total Pages : 159 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (361 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Critique and Radical Discourses on Crime by : George Pavlich

Download or read book Critique and Radical Discourses on Crime written by George Pavlich and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title was first published in 2000: Critique and Radical Discourses on Crime develops a unique line of thought in contemporary criminology, re-examining an under-researched dimension of radical discourse. In particular, it focuses attention on the distinguishing feature of radical discourses, their allegiance to various visions of critique. The book reassesses the genres of critique evident in previous forms of radical criminology, formulates a different genre of critique appropriate to the uncertainties of postmodern conditions and, shows how these genres can be articulated to differently conceived radical discourses on crime¿.

Narrative Justice

Download Narrative Justice PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1786606348
Total Pages : 233 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (866 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Narrative Justice by : Rafe McGregor

Download or read book Narrative Justice written by Rafe McGregor and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-09-16 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book introduces narrative justice, a new theory of aesthetic education – the thesis that the cultivation of aesthetic or artistic sensibility can both improve moral character and achieve political justice. The author argues that there is a subcategory of narrative representations that provide moral knowledge regardless of their categorisation as fiction or non-fiction, and which therefore can be employed as a means of moral improvement. McGregor applies this narrative ethics to the criminology of inhumanity, including both crimes against humanity and terrorism. Expanding on the methodology of narrative criminology, he demonstrates that narrative representations can be employed to evaluate responsibility for inhumanity, to understand the psychology of inhumanity, and to undermine inhumanity – and are thus a means to the end of opposing injustice. He concludes that the cultivation of narrative sensibility is an important tool for both moral improvement and political justice.

Radical Sociologists and the Movement

Download Radical Sociologists and the Movement PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Temple University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781439901700
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (17 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Radical Sociologists and the Movement by : Martin J. Murray

Download or read book Radical Sociologists and the Movement written by Martin J. Murray and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 1991 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Mean Lives, Mean Laws

Download Mean Lives, Mean Laws PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Rutgers University Press
ISBN 13 : 0813573971
Total Pages : 164 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (135 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Mean Lives, Mean Laws by : Susan F. Sharp

Download or read book Mean Lives, Mean Laws written by Susan F. Sharp and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2014-09-20 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oklahoma has long held the dubious honor of having the highest female incarceration rate in the country, nearly twice the national average. In this compelling new book, sociologist Susan Sharp sets out to discover just what has gone so wrong in the state of Oklahoma—and what that might tell us about trends in female incarceration nationwide. The culmination of over a decade of original research, Mean Lives, Mean Laws exposes a Kafkaesque criminal justice system, one that has no problem with treating women as collateral damage in the War on Drugs or with stripping female prisoners of their parental rights. Yet it also reveals the individual histories of women who were jailed in Oklahoma, providing intimate portraits of their lives before, during, and after their imprisonment. We witness the impoverished and abusive conditions in which many of these women were raised; we get a vivid portrait of their everyday lives behind bars; and we glimpse the struggles that lead many ex-convicts to fall back into the penal system. Through an innovative methodology that combines statistical rigor with extensive personal interviews, Sharp shows how female incarceration affects not only individuals, but also families and communities. Putting a human face on a growing social problem, Mean Lives, Mean Laws raises important questions about both the state of Oklahoma and the state of the nation.