Book Review: America is the Prison: Arts and Politics in Prison in the 1970s

• Author: Stephen Owen
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016811415258
• Date: 01 June 2012
• Published date: 01 June 2012
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

those principles work in conjunction with the matrix. The authors also discuss the opportunity theory

and how this common criminal theory can be utilized to combat terrorism. Through the use of the

opportunity theory, the authors suggest that if you know when and where a crime will occur (such as

a terrorist attack), you can limit the vulnerabilities of the target and possibly apprehend the terrorist

or criminal. However, whereas opportunity reduction may not reduce the occurrence of terrorism, it

does reduce public fear of terrorism.

Part 2 also involves the study of community-oriented policing in relation to terrorism. The use of

community-oriented policing tactics appears to have little to no impact on the reduction of terrorism

but directly reduces fear. Racial profiling is also reviewed as a means in which it may prevent

terrorism. Although the authors agree that racial profiling does reduce and prevent terrorism, the use

of such tactics are unconstitutional and considered morally wrong in today’s racially stratified

society. The authors stress the overall sanctity of civil liberties along with the need for national

security both should be addressed for future prevention of terrorism.

Finally, Part 3 involves the solutions associated with preventing terrorism. The ability to reveal

the truths about terrorism and eliminate the various myths about terrorist operations will assist in

reducing the fear created by these organizations globally. Furthermore, by studying terrorism

through criminological perspectives, terrorist attacks will be reduced and those committing such acts

can be brought to justice.

The book is well structured and articulates the need for utilizing criminology in combating

terrorism. The main strength of the book is the validity given by using case studies to affirm the

notion of using criminological theory to combat the global threat of terrorism. Using these various

case studies, the authors provide an in-depth look at the various ways in which terrorism, and fear of

terrorism, may be reduced. At the end of each chapter, a reference page is presented giving the reader

the ability to verify and evaluate the findings of each case study. This allows the reader the advan-

tage of conducting additional research in the chosen topic.

In Conclusion, Forst, Greene, and Lynch provide a compiling argument in which the reader will

learn how the criminological perspective is potentially useful to prevent terrorism. Additionally,

using alternative methods, perspectives, and theories associated with criminology new federal,

state, and local policies may be produced to prevent and mitigate the effects of terrorism in the

future.

L. Bernstein

America is the Prison: Arts and Politics in Prison in the 1970s Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press,

2010. xi, 224 pp. $35.00. ISBN 978-0807833872

Reviewed by: Stephen Owen, Radford University, Radford, VA, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734016811415258

In this work, Bernstein approaches the topic of writing and arts activities in American prisons in the

1970s from the broad perspective of cultural studies. The title suggests what is arguably the author’s

central theme, namely, that American society oppresses racial minorities, as reflected through the

use of the prison, but that inmates’ opportunities in the 1970s to express themselves through

literature and the arts served to shape political discourse about the nature of social and criminal

justice. Accordingly, the text explores culturally constructed meanings of imprisonment and how

various forms of expression interpreted them, challenged them, or reified them in the public mind.

Much of the narrative reflects a Marxist interpretation, with references to state power and repression,

colonialism, and revolution.

274 Criminal Justice Review 37(2)