Book Review: Ranking Correctional Punishments: Views From Offenders, Practitioners, and the Public

• DOI: 10.1177/0734016811419313
• Author: Marcus Galeste
• Date: 01 June 2012
• Published date: 01 June 2012
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

to the many facets of the justice system such as prisons, the death penalty, and community correc-

tions. Using this work would allow undergraduate students to gain insight into many larger issues

that cannot be explored fully in an introductory course. The final chapter of the book would be well

suited for graduate-level courses because it begs for the consideration of greater issues that could

change the course of social control in the United States.

In their conclusion, Blomberg and Lucken do not shy away from posing big questions about the

evolution of social control. Chapter 14 paints a picture of an America being pushed ever closer to a

crossroads of penological public policy. Drawing on the recent events of September 11, 2001, the

authors illustrate how we are on the verge of compromising our freedoms in favor of safety and

control. Moreover, they ponder whether the notions of crime control and control in general are

blurring.Conflict criminologistswill be quick to point out thatcrime control and controlof populations

have always been synonymous and certainly many of the book’s chapters serve to illustrate this point.

When reading this book with a critical eye, the reader will see how American penological reforms

have been inspired by the simple and unavoidable facets of human nature that we call fear and

self-preservation. Blomberg and Lucken take this conclusion a step further by questioning the role

that technology is playing in the advancement of control. It is certainly a valid question, seeing as

how technological innovation has evolved at a pace far more rapid than that of criminal justice

policy. But it is here where the authors seem to stop short of asking and attempting to answer the

biggest questions.

They argue that the distinction between crime control and control in general are blurring but do

not confront the very real possibility that this blurring has already and irreversibly occurred. By

playing it safe, the authors recommend that criminologists be objective in their research on public

policy and advance their role in influencing reforms. This is sage advice, but if the authors are

correct in their assertion about the risks to personal freedom, then the conclusion deserves more

attention than is given. For if our constitutional freedoms are at risk, freedoms that have cost blood,

sweat, and tears, then criminologists and students of criminal justice find themselves in a tenuous

position, where research is likely to either repair the damage or further entrap society into the

complex web of control. But perhaps the authors’ intentions were not to elaborate on these points,

but instead, inspire thoughts and discussion among their readers. In that respect, American Penology

succeeds as a valuable tool for criminal justice instructors and scholars.

D. C. May and P. B. Wood

Ranking Correctional Punishments: Views From Offenders, Practitioners, and the Public

Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2010. xv, 168 pp. $22.00. ISBN: 978-1594605895

Reviewed by: Marcus Galeste, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ

DOI: 10.1177/0734016811419313

While it is well known that individuals representing different arenas of the criminal justice system

view the punitiveness of particular sanctions differently, Ranking Correctional Punishments seeks

not only to challenge what is perceived as being the continuum of sanction severity but to identify

among whom these variations are prevalent. To do so, the authors gather data collected from various

studies over a decade from convicted offenders both in prison and those being supervised in the

community, practitioners within criminal justice (probation and parole officers, judges), as well

as the public. Using survey instruments, the authors draw upon the perceptions these various actors

have on the severity of particular forms of punishment. May and Wood sought to garner these data to

challenge a continuum of sanction severity that was proposed by Morris and Tonry (1990) in their

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