Book Review: Criminality in context: The psychological foundations of criminal justice reform

• Date: 01 February 2022
• Author: Claire Goggin,Paul Gendreau
• DOI: 10.1177/00938548211032264
• Published date: 01 February 2022
• Subject Matter: Book Review

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2022, Vol. 49, No. 2, February 2022, 279 –285.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548211032264

Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions

© 2021 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

279

BOOK REVIEW

Haney, C. (2020). Criminality in context: The psychological foundations of criminal justice reform. American

Psychological Association. 423 pp. $39.99 (paperback). ISBN 978-1-4338-3142-3.

In 1986, Jerome Miller, the acclaimed prison reformer, organized a landmark conference

to challenge the “nothing works” agenda prevalent in American corrections. As one of the

presenters, the first author found it inspiring to listen to the contributions of scholars like

Frank Cullen (Cullen & Gilbert, 1982) and Elliot Currie (1985) as they lay the foundations

for reaffirming the rehabilitative ideal. Fast forwarding to the present, Dr Haney’s input to

this topic is timely because it represents yet another important building block toward a pro-

gressive corrections agenda in the United States, one in keeping with Jerome Miller’s call

to action.

In his text, Dr Haney makes a vigorous case against what he characterizes as the “crime

master” narrative in the United States vis-à-vis street crime. This narrative assumes that peo-

ple are to blame for their own plight; ergo, they engage in criminal behavior of their own free

will. Since society bears little responsibility for street crime, punishment is the logical response

(i.e., war on drugs). Dr Haney then proceeds to document the impact of the failure of succes-

sive American administrations to safeguard the lives of their most vulnerable citizens. His

tone borders on exasperation given the degree to which the implementation of progressive

social policies in the United States has not kept pace with that of Western peers.1 Finally,

Haney presents a number of proposals designed to address deficiencies within the legal sys-

tem and in the broad domains of social justice (e.g., poverty, prisons, schools, systemic rac-

ism). Furthermore, he promotes interventions (i.e., desistance, restorative justice (RJ)) other

than the cognitive behavioral methods which have become the standard of effective practice

in treatment programs over the last 30 years (Cullen, 2012; Gendreau & Ross, 1987).

In our review, we do not intend to descend down the rabbit hole of “s/he who shouts

loudest wins the day”, a tactic often used when debating hot button criminal justice issues

(e.g., the “nothing works” debate; Gendreau & Ross, 1979).2 Our comments aim to seek

consensus where possible and to weigh in with additional research evidence that will be of

interest to readers.

THEORY

In Chapter 5, Dr Haney makes a bold statement: what the field needs is nothing less than

a theoretical revolution based on situational determinants of behavior (i.e., situationism).

Surprisingly, Haney suggests that crime masters may exist within social science itself (e.g.,

forensic/correctional psychologists and those criminologists interested in rehabilitation).

For Haney, the damning evidence comes from the use of the term “risk” (pp. 64–66). He

contends that criminal risk factors (e.g., the central eight; Bonta & Andrews, 2017) and

1032264CJBXXX10.1177/00938548211032264Criminal Justice and BehaviorBook Review

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