Trial and Error in Criminal Justice Reform: Learning from Failure

by Greg Berman, Aubrey Fox

In this revised edition of their concise, readable, yet wide-ranging book, Greg Berman and Aubrey Fox tackle a question students and scholars of law, criminology, and political science constantly face: what mistakes have led to the problems that pervade the criminal justice system in the United States? The reluctance of criminal justice policymakers to talk openly about failure, the authors argue, has stunted the public conversation about crime in this country and stifled new ideas. It has also contributed to our inability to address such problems as chronic offending in low-income neighborhoods, an overreliance on incarceration, the misuse of pretrial detention, and the high rates of recidivism among parolees. Berman and Fox offer students and policymakers an escape from this fate by writing about failure in the criminal justice system. Their goal is to encourage a more forthright dialogue about criminal justice, one that acknowledges that many new initiatives fail and that no one knows for certain how to reduce crime. For the authors, this is not a source of pessimism, but a call to action. This revised edition is updated with a new foreword by Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., and afterword by Greg Berman.

166 pages, Paperback

First published July 16, 2010

Reviews

[William Crosby · Rating 5 out of 5]

The subtitle "learning from failure" summarizes the focus of the book: why various justice system reforms over the years in various locales did not work or had mixed results. Fascinating study including sociology, politics, interpersonal relations.

A short book; it provides succinct case studies and points in evaluating reforms.