This book discusses research on women’s imprisonment, trends in violent crime, sentence severity, stolen vehicle trafficking, labor racketeering, procedural justice, and career criminals.
The first essay reviews evidence relevant to some of the questions regarding women’s imprisonment and draws attention to a range of issues about which much less is known. Comparative data on men and women are examined regarding the patterns and experiences of imprisonment. How imprisonment affects women’s lives after prison, chances of reoffending, and the hurdles faced upon returning to their families and the community are also examined. The second essay presents a re-analysis of quantitative estimates of homicide rates in Europe from the Middle Ages to the present day. Evidence is reviewed on various factors such as sex, age, and class of violent offenders and historical patterns are examined of the sex of homicide victims and their relationship with the offender. The third essay reviews the evidence that supports the conclusion that harsher sentences do not deter. The article suggests that the continued belief of many people in the deterrent effect of harsh sanctions may be rooted in an imperfect form of reasoning about deterrence. The fourth essay provides a broad outline of what is known about trafficking in stolen cars, examines areas key to the development of a policy-oriented research agenda, and presents specific areas for future research. The fifth essay seeks to make a case for taking labor racketeering seriously, analyzes the Federal Government’s remedial efforts to purge organized crime from corrupted international unions, and attempts to find a theoretical place for labor racketeering in academic criminology. The sixth essay focuses on empirical support concerning the importance of process-based judgments in the context of the social regulatory activities of the police and the courts. The final essay surveys background and recent developments associated with the criminal career paradigm. Findings of some of the major cohort and longitudinal studies are presented. Policy implications are discussed including policies associated with sentence duration. Indexes