Book Review: Peak, K. J. (2006). Policing America: Methods, Issues, Challenges (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Pp. xxvii, 480

• Published date: 01 December 2008
• Date: 01 December 2008
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734016808316828
• Subject Matter: Articles

The author takes special care to understand the centrality of violence in the lives of her

subjects: First is the violence committed by the women, second is the violence by which

they are victimized, and third are representative forms of violence such as the growing cli-

mate of racial antagonism of turn-of-the-century Philadelphia. The author explores the

impact of overlapping contexts of violence on the lives of Black women and on Black

women’s decisions and behaviors. The crime of badgering may be the single best example

of Black women’s agency in defiance of stifling conventions, in confronting their social and

economic marginalization and in response to their experiences of violence. The criminal

justice system of that day identified the crime badgering as when a woman (posing as a

street prostitute) would lure a man off the street, overpower him, and relieve him of his wal-

let and valuables. Although the victims tended to be White males of higher socioeconomic

status than the perpetrators, Black women, acting alone or with female accomplices, were

seldom arrested, tried, or imprisoned when they badgered the fautors (customers of prosti-

tutes). Men, so assaulted, would seldom report the crime of badgering because they had too

much to lose professionally and socially if it became commonly known that they had

propositioned prostitutes. Black women who worked with male accomplices in the com-

mission of badgering were far more likely to be arrested, tried, and imprisoned.

In Colored Amazons, Kali Gross gives effective and palpable voice to Black women of

the postreconstruction period—an effective voice which communicates ambitions, values,

frustrations, and experience with violence and other trauma. It is a voice which is inter-

preted from records of Black women’s crime of the period.

Colored Amazons is an excellent example of historical research that constitutes a valu-

able addition to the criminal justice and women’s literatures. It brings to light Black

women’s historical experiences with marginalized living and with the criminal justice sys-

tem—subjects which have been largely overlooked in the criminal justice literature. The

work is timely, thorough, enlightening, and a powerful tool of women’s empowerment—

especially for the empowerment of African American and/or marginalized women.

Edward J. Schauer

Prairie View A&M University

Peak, K. J. (2006). Policing America: Methods, Issues, Challenges

(5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Pp. xxvii, 480.

DOI: 10.1177/0734016808316828

The fifth edition of Peak’s introductory text opens on a brief history of American polic-

ing culminating in the community-oriented policing and problem-solving (COPPS) move-

ments—framed as the rediscovery of Peel and Vollmer’s vision after the mid-20th century

misadventure of the “crime fighter” model. After sketching the jurisdictional structure of

federal and local police agencies in the next chapter, the third focuses on candidate selection

and socialization processes, while briefly addressing police functions and styles. The fol-

lowing two chapters speak to the organization and administration of (local) police depart-

ments and of the nature of patrol work, respectively. The principles of COPPS and its

568 Criminal Justice Review