Criminologists Barak, Flavin, and Leighton reveal how class, race, and gender operate both separately and in combination to influence individual experience in and of the criminal justice system and larger society. To this end, the authors provide a detailed and nuanced portrait of the multi-layered social reality of crime, incorporating useful historical and contemporary examples as they analyze the twin problems of crime production and crime control.
The book examines how these social realities affect the meanings and intentions of justice, law, policing, judicial processing, punishment, victimization, and media representations of crime and crime control. In light of these social realities, the authors then look at similarities and dissimilarities between systems of "equal justice," "restorative justice," and "social justice." In conclusion, they set forth a summary of reforms and policies for crime control and criminal reduction currently under consideration.
