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This book analyzes the sources and results of the fourfold increase in the U.S. correctional population since 1970. It considers the following themes: the value of punitiveness, defined as penal harm; research on crime and criminals; concerns about victims of crime; and concerns about community safety. It also analyzes the relationship between social problems and penal harm, such as poverty and crime during the twenty-year period of correctional expansion.
The author argues that a careful review of proposals for expanded penal harm cannot be justified. The growth in corrections was not caused by crime nor has it reduced crime. Clear describes a new strategy for corrections based on his examination of the politics of social control and the growth in penal harm.
"The book's special quality is that Todd Clear balances passion and humaneness with scholarship and an appropriate appreciation for complexity. What emerges is a rare prize of a work, which avoids the pitfalls of shallow ideology and the dryness of 'mere' scholarship." — Francis T. Cullen, University of Cincinnati
List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgments
Preface
1. Penal Harm and Its Justifications
2. The Great Punishment Experiment
3. Penal Science
4. Victims and Punishment
5. Community Protection
6. Reducing Penal Harm
Notes
References
Name Index
Subject Index