Convict Criminology (Contemporary Issues in Crime and Justice Series) [Paperback]

Jeffrey Ian Ross (Author), Stephen C. Richards (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0534574335 | ISBN-13: 978-0534574338 | Publication Date: August 19, 2002 | Edition: 1

CONVICT CRIMINOLOGY is a collection of chapters written by criminologists, half of whom are ex-convicts. The book includes provocative discussions of rehabilitation, recidivism, drug addiction, life inside different prison systems, transincarceration, discrimination against felons, fathers in prison, and children in adult jails. The book merges autobiographical stories with criminological research to introduce a convict perspective that includes new ideas, vocabulary, and policy recommendations. CONVICT CRIMINOLOGY is a comprehensive text that covers all major topics related to prison life, prisoner reentry to the community, and research on prisons, in an engaging, thought-provoking style.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeffrey Ian Ross, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the School of Criminal Justice, College of Public Affairs, and a Research Fellow of the Center for International and Comparative Law at the University of Baltimore. He has researched, written, and lectured on national security, political violence, political crime, violent crime, corrections, policing, cybercrime, and crime and justice in Indian Country for over two decades. Ross' work has appeared in many academic journals and books, as well as popular media. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of sixteen books.During the 1980's, Ross worked almost four years in a correctional facility. In 2005-2006 he was a member of the Prisoner/Prisoner Advocate Liaison Group for the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine committee examining ethics and research with prisoners. 

Stephen C. Richards Ph.D, is Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. He is the author of five books, and numerous scholarly articles. He is lead organizer and one of the founders of the New School of Convict Criminology, the Convict Criminology Theoretical Perspective and Group. Richards is a Soros Senior Justice Fellow.

Product Details

• Paperback: 424 pages
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing; 1 edition (August 19, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0534574335
• ISBN-13: 978-0534574338
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #178,814 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nancy Poon University of Saskatchewan, March 6, 2005

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Canadian Review of Books - See all my reviews

This review is from: Convict Criminology (Contemporary Issues in Crime and Justice Series) (Paperback)

As part of the Wadsworth Series on Contemporary Issues in Crime and Justice, this edited volume attempts to go beyond the coverage of typical classroom texts. The contributors, many of whom are ex-convicts-turned academics, are critical of assumptions used to justify incarceration, their central difficulty being with the way prisons dehumanise. This volume critically examines the prison institution from the perspective of the `other.'

Part 1, "What's Wrong with Corrections," sets the stage in three chapters. Austin argues that the current criminological research focus, much of which is misinterpreted, on predators, persisters or the truly dangerous, has resulted in the uncritical acceptance of incarceration as the solution. According to Ross, misrepresentations and stereotyping are the consequence of uncritically accepting of the media's take on corrections and reinforce existing crime-control practices, preventing discussions of alternative ways of doing crime control. Fisher-Giorlando reminds us that criminologists' successes, including her own, rests on the lives of men and women prisoners and that we owe it to them to devise and implement relevant policy.

Part 2, in six chapters, sets out "Convict Experience and Identity." Tromanhauser and Terry discuss the current state of conventional criminological research. Using his own life as an example, Tromanhauser reminds us that there is no simple explanation of crime causation. Terry concurs with Tromanhauser, adding that most criminological research is dominated by factor analysis and multivariate correlations' having little relevance with people's real life situations. Richards and Newbold discuss the state of social support for convicts. While Richards points out that corrections workers, more often than not, fail to interact with convicts in any meaningful or relevant fashion, Newbold argues that recidivism rates are high because many have no outside social support and reincarceration often occurs for breech of parole conditions. Thus, Newbold adds, life inside becomes easier because people learn how to adjust to life in prison. Lanier and Jones deal with adjustment to life inside and outside the prison walls. While Lanier points out that the increasing number of fathers in prison has negative psychological impacts due to their having long-term consequences for their institutional adjustment, Jones argues that adjustment back into society is subject to inmates' interpretations of past events and their current problem-solving skills. How prisoners face these challenges, Jones points out, can tell us a lot about what might be done to help them. The final chapter in Part 2 (by Mobley) argues that a fiscally responsible penology may mean better prisons may look completely different from prisons as we know them now. But Mobley, as an ex-convict, points out that suggestions made by him and his fellow convict criminologists face resistance from both convict and academic communities because the suggestions come from ex-convicts.

The final six chapters (Part 3), a somewhat eclectic collection, are about "Special Populations"-women, the physically and mentally ill, American Indians and juveniles. wen argues that we need to understand women's experiences from their point of view, conceptualising their behaviour as expressions of oppressive social contexts both outside and inside prison walls. On the issue of caring for the physically ill, Murphy suggests that overshadowing health care with security concerns poses danger to the inmate population and ultimately the community-at-large in terms of fiscal and resource burn-out. Arrigo points out that mental health offenders are effectively silenced because they are the subjects of transcarceration between mental hospitals and prisons. Thus alternative (more positive) interpretations/labels of their behaviours are effectively negated. The legal label `Indian' has social implications in terms of access to both constitutional rights and relevant institutional programming inside which has implications for preventing recidivism, according to Archambault. Tregea, a little off topic, deals with preventing recidivism, arguing for relevant programming that enhance inmates' chances for productive citizenry. In addition to vocational skills, quality educational programs that teach writing, oral, critical thinking and problem solving skills are needed. He further argues for both sentencing and recidivism guidelines to reduce the prison population in the long run. When examining how juveniles understand their carceral experience, Elrod and Brooks assert that the official version of the institution is a sanitised and at best, simplified version of realities experienced by those who live there, and that many juveniles do not see the point of much of what goes on inside.

The concluding chapter (Richards and Ross) invites readers to think about listening to the clientele of prisons so as to make relevant prison policy that may have a better chance of reducing the prison population in the long run.

Despite a few editorial errors, the no-nonsense writing style of some of the contributors may be unpalatable for some. The shifting levels of analysis among section chapters make this volume odd and eclectic in ways. However, this volume represents a significant and valuable contribution to the field of criminology making a strong argument for qualitative research in prisons. This volume offers a view of the prison institution and its effects, from the point of view of its clientele-the inmates- and is appropriate for senior undergraduates and criminal justice policy makers and administrators.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Convict Criminology, November 5, 2002

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Victoria Simpson Beck, Ph.D. (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Convict Criminology (Contemporary Issues in Crime and Justice Series) (Paperback)

In the United States there is a tendency to reduce human life to numbers, and base social policy on statistical analyses. The problem with this approach is that it can undermine important historical lessons, and, as Charles M. Terry points out, strength is gained by recollecting the past.

Convict Criminology presents a strong historical lesson on our failure to understand the real-life situations of a large segment of our population-the incarcerated. This failure may explain why we have grown comfortable with practice of demonizing and warehousing so many members of our society. Yet, as suggested in Convict Criminology there is probably less than six degrees of separation between those of us who have not been detected by the criminal justice system and warehoused for our deviant acts and those of us who have.

Unlike most empathetic commentators on the state of corrections in the United States, the collective writings contained in Convict Criminology convey a commitment to bringing about needed change within our correctional system in the short run; and improvement within our society in the long run. The commitment to social change conveyed in the book may seem ironic, given the fact that most of the writers are ex-cons who have experienced the brutality of our attempts to "correct" deviant behavior. What these writers demonstrate, however, is that kindness, compassion, and validation are, in fact, our strongest weapons against crime

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CONVICT CRIMINOLOGY REVIEW 101, December 2, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Convict Criminology (Contemporary Issues in Crime and Justice Series) (Paperback)

RICHARDS AND ROSS EDIT A FASCINATING WORK ON THE LIVES AND OBSERVATIONS OF VARIOUS SCHOLARS WITH DIRECT EXPERIENCE IN THE PENAL SYSTEM. THIS EASILY DIGESTIBLE BOOK SERVES AS AN EXCELLENT REFERENCE WORK ON VARIOUS ASPECTS OF CRIMINOLGY, AND IS RECOMMENDED BOTH GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS. THE BOOK FEATURES 9 CHAPTERS BY EX-COVICTS THAT ARE NOW PROFESSORS OF SOCIOLOGY, CRIMINOLOGY, OR CRIMINAL JUSTICE.