Book Review: Punishment, Participatory Democracy, and the Jury

• Published date: 01 September 2013
• Date: 01 September 2013
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567713495559
• Author: Brenda Russell
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Book Reviews
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Kuiken, K. (1993). Soldiers, cops, bannermen: The rise and fall of the first communist police state, 1931-1969.
Groningen, The Netherlands: Wolters-Noordhoff Academieprijs.
Ruskola, T. (2002). Legal orientalism. Michigan Law Review, 101, 179–234.
Trevaskes, S. (2010). Policing serious crime in China. London, England: Routledge.
Wong, K. C. (2009). Policing in China: History and reform. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang.
Wong, K. C. (2012) Police Reform in China. New York. NY: CRC Press.
Albert W. Dzur
Punishment, Participatory Democracy, and the Jury, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2012. 221 pp. $55.00
(hardcover). ISBN-978-0-19-987-409-5
Reviewed by: Brenda Russell, Pennsylvania State University Berks, Reading, PA, USA
DOI: 10.1177/1057567713495559
Punishment, Participatory Democracy, and the Jury by Albert W. Dzur presents a thought
provoking analysis of the decline of the jury in contemporary society and argues that democratic
justice and a revival of the jury is the best path toward reducing the problem of hyperincarceration
while maintaining checks and balances on judicial power. The text provides eight chapters on the
topics reviewing theories of crime, punishment, the decline, and the necessity of the revitalization
of the American jury. Dzur’s style of writing is dense, comprehensive, and filled with comparative
theoretical arguments throughout the text that are best suited as a supplemental text in graduate
courses in political science, philosophy, criminal justice, political, or democratic theory.
Dzur first captures the attention of the reader by introducing the issue that while Americans thrive
on getting their news from late night television and political satire, they paradoxically detest juror
duty while drawn to the virtual world of watching juries from outside of the courtroom. Dzur
believes this attraction to juries outside the courtroom suggests that the public, at least on some level,
craves power sharing. Yet, in contrast to our apparent...