Book Review: Barker, T. (2006). Police Ethics: Crisis in Law Enforcement (2nd ed.). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. x pp., 116 pp

• Author: Andrew Alexandra
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016808319180
• Published date: 01 September 2008
• Date: 01 September 2008
• Subject Matter: Articles

Book Reviews 415

Chapter 6 summarizes arrest and incarceration data for the 4,688 male offenders in the

CYA samples used here. Three separate samples of offenders paroled from the CYA from

three separate time periods (1981/1982, 1986/1987, and 1991/1992) were followed into

2000. Recidivism approaches 90% for the sample as a whole, with more than 80% rear-

rested at some future time for a serious violent offense. In fact, more than half of the orig-

inal group was incarcerated as adults—truly a serious group of offenders. The findings as

to the relationship between age and crime are presented in Chapter 7. Results with respect

to the relationship between past and future offending are reported in Chapter 8 and indi-

cate, at least by implication, the presence of a state dependence effect.

The concluding Chapter 9 discusses the implications of their study and findings. The

authors conclude, at least regarding the issues they considered here, more support for

Sampson and Laub’s 1993/2003 age-graded theory of informal social control. It seems that

while some groups of offenders have desisted criminal activity by their mid-20s, virtually

all have begun reducing their level of criminality.

The analyses of the data are quite complex at times, but Ezell and Cohen present and dis-

cuss in Appendix A in just enough detail the methodology and modes of analyses for the

study. The Poisson and negative binomial regression models used here are explained in ways

that help even the methodologically challenged. Appendix B summarizes the percentage of

cases at risk of arrest at each age for the sample, and Appendix C lists a Web site where addi-

tional tables and figures omitted from the text but relative to the study are available.

This is indeed an important book for those who have more than a passing interest in life-

course criminology or career criminality. While the conclusions reached here do not differ

significantly from those of other researchers over the past 20 years or so, the fact that high-

risk samples are examined here certainly add much to the debate. From a policy standpoint,

the findings certainly call into question the fundamental bases of current habitual offender

statutes and the disastrous “three-strikes and you’re out” philosophy currently in vogue in

California and elsewhere.

Chuck Fields

Eastern Kentucky University

Barker, T. (2006). Police Ethics: Crisis in Law Enforcement

(2nd ed.). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. x pp., 116 pp.

DOI: 10.1177/0734016808319180

The importance of an ethically motivated and morally alert police force goes without

saying. However, the complexities of the police role, the stresses and temptations that are

an inherent part of police work, the moral ambiguity of many of the situations in which

police find themselves, and the solidarity that is a deeply entrenched feature of police culture,

jointly generate substantial barriers to achieving such a force.

There is a variety of means to dealing with these threats to police integrity, including

selective recruitment policies, well-functioning complaints and discipline procedures, iden-

tification of “at risk” officers, and so on. The effective teaching of “police ethics”—the study