Book Review: The methamphetamine industry in America: Transnational cartels and local entrepreneurs

• Date: 01 June 2015
• Published date: 01 June 2015
• Author: David Farabee
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016815573305
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

claims of the American democratic ideal. The authors do not deny that there have been advances

toward greater equality and justice in U.S. history, or that the government has a positive role in

society, but rather they posit that current criminal justice practices reflect an erosion of these

accomplishments. In Chapter 4, the authors argue that the criminal justice promotes political

learning, in that it often shapes the perspectives of custodial citizens about government or the role

of the state. Through their lived experiences, custodial citizens’ understanding of democracy and

what it means to be a citizen can be molded by the nature of their negative encounters with the

criminal justice system as it represents the state.

The second half of the book fleshes out the statistics with qualitative data from a series of

interviews, providing evidence to support Lerman and Weaver’s theory of the socializing nature

of criminal justice policies and practices. The chapters devoted to the findings from their interview

give voice to the custodial citizenry, allowing respondents to describe their experience with the

system and how it has shaped their psyche and their behavior. It is through these chapters that the

book speaks most powerfully to the reader and provides insight into the unseen damage being done

by criminal justice policies to individuals and to our society as a whole. Finally, in Chapter 9,

‘‘Where Do We Go From Here,’’ the authors provide a series of policy recommendations. The

importance of this chapter cannot be overstatedwhenitcomestousingthisbookinaclassroom.

Typically, critical criminal justice theory paints a very bleak picture of criminal justice institu-

tions, policies, and practices, and this book is no exception. However, the education of students

is not complete until we show them the pathway out of injustice. In this regard, Lerman and

Weaver suggest the following three broad areas for reform: (1) increasi ng democratic responsive-

ness and voice, (2) increasing democratic accountability and transparency, and (3) increasing

racial equality. For criminal justice scholars and policy makers, the prescription offered by

Lerman and Weaver is to confront the antidemocratic criminal justice practices that have produced

mass incarceration and to be uncompromising in our commitment to justice reinvestment toward

the creation of a criminal justice system that is consistent with our democratic ideals.

Brownstein, H. H., Mulcahy, T. M., & Huessy, J. (2014).

The methamphetamine industry in America: Transnational cartels and local entrepreneurs. New Brunswick, NJ:

Rutgers University Press. 151 pp. $39.95, ISBN: 978-0-8135-6984-0.

Reviewed by: David Farabee, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734016815573305

In their recent book, The Methamphetamine Industry in America: Transnational Cartels and Local

Entrepreneurs, Brownstein and his colleagues describe their findings from 4 years of research (from

2007 to 2011) on the organization and social aspects of North American methamphetamine markets.

Their study began with a screening survey of over 1,300 police agencies in the United States,

followed by in-depth, semistructured interviews with 50 narcotics detectives, and, finally, site visits

and interviews with methamphetamine users, dealers, and law enforcement officials in five distinct

regions of the country. Unfortunately, the response rate from police agencies was only 31%, which

undermines the generalizability of the survey. Moreover, the description of how the 50 narcotics

detectives were selected is not clear, aside from meeting the criteria that the final sample reflected

a mix of import and ‘‘mom and pop’’ markets. (The authors do point out, however, that the initial

240 Criminal Justice Review 40(2)