Book Review: MacKenzie, D. L. (2006). What Works in Corrections: Reducing the Criminal Activities of Offenders and Delinquents. New York: Cambridge University Press. 390 pp

• Author: Carrie L. Cook
• Date: 01 June 2009
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016808325623
• Published date: 01 June 2009
• Subject Matter: Articles

284 Criminal Justice Review

Chapter 10 begins with looking at the overall level of punitiveness from 1990 to 2000.

Frost points out that for the most part, states have become more punitive over this period

of time, but they have done so in an even fashion. States that ranked low or high in impris-

onment rates tended to hold their ranks, rather than make a major shift in punitiveness. The

author shows that the state-level changes in imprisonment risk, as well as time served

(although to a lesser extent), are good indicators of changes in imprisonment rates.

Chapter 11 concludes with the basic overall statement that the way punitiveness is

defined and the way it is measured makes a major impact on how a state ranks in terms of

punitivenes. Frost lists some limitations of her study, but the research is clearly the most

extensive look into the differing ways to study punitiveness and gives other researchers firm

ground on which to continue exploring the punitive state.

Nick Harpster

Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas

MacKenzie, D. L. (2006). What Works in Corrections: Reducing the Criminal Activities of

Offenders and Delinquents. New York: Cambridge University Press. 390 pp.

DOI: 10.1177/0734016808325623

The book opens with a discussion of how incarceration trends have increased at unprece-

dented rates: from relatively stable rates of 106 prisoners per 100,000 individuals in the gen-

eral population in the early 20th century to a rate of 478 in 2000. MacKenzie indicates the

reasons for this change have been largely attributed to changes in sentencing practices begin-

ning in the mid-1970s, including mandatory sentencing, habitual offender laws, and truth in

sentencing mandates, as well as increased punishment of drug offenders.

MacKenzie admits the reality of correctional programming and evaluation: There is less

than ideal integrity and poor implementation involved in many program efforts. In addition,

evaluations of such programs are often poorly designed and lack methodological rigor. This

section also includes an informative narrative on how evidence is examined to reach conclu-

sions about intervention effectiveness that is useful to both practitioners and academics unfa-

miliar with program evaluation. The methods MacKenzie uses to examine effectiveness are

thorough and appropriate, and they include a review of the research and discussion of sig-

nificance tests, the Maryland scientific scoring method, and meta-analyses. The first section

of the book also contains a discussion of the effectiveness of incapacitation as a crime-control

policy and the principles of rehabilitation that appear to be promising treatment approaches.

MacKenzie discusses the problematic process of calculating costs of incarceration and

the challenge of estimating the volume of crimes actually prevented by incapacitation.

Although incapacitation does have some effect on crime rates, she argues the exact nature

of that effect is muddied by the reality that other factors, namely demographics, influence

crime rates as well. MacKenzie concludes there is an aggregate decrease in crime rates that

can be attributed to increases in the use of incarceration; however, the overall decrease is

modest compared to the costs of increasing prison populations. She writes that a “law of