Book Review: Trial and Error in Criminal Justice Reform: Learning From Failure

• DOI: 10.1177/0734016811406716
• Date: 01 March 2012
• Published date: 01 March 2012
• Author: Stan Stojkovic
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

G. Berman and A. Fox

Trial and Error in Criminal Justice Reform: Learning From Failure. Washington, DC:

The Urban Institute Press, 2010. xi, 143 pp. $26.50. ISBN 978-0-87766-767-4

Reviewed by: Stan Stojkovic, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734016811406716

The sociologist Charles Perrow offers the phrase ‘‘gross malfunctioning analysis’’ as a way to pro-

mote a further understanding of the reasons why initiatives fail in organizations, and more impor-

tantly, what we can learn from failure that allows for greater analysis of organizational decisions.

This latter premise serves as the primary reason why Berman and Fox wrote this little book. The

authors’ goal is to learn from our mistakes and move forward, not to continue to do the same thing

over and over with the hope that something productive will occur.

Berman and Fox provide some fascinating examples of large-scale efforts designed to address

mammoth crime problems that ultimately failed. The initiatives were in areas that have traditionally

seemed impossible to solve: gun violence among youth, drug usage, youth homicide, ineffective par-

ole operations, celebrated cases and the creation of draconian legislation, and drug treatment edu-

cation for youth. The authors explore these topics through various concrete efforts conducted in

diverse communities over the past 20 years. Their conclusion is both sobering and unsettling (at one

level): grand criminal justice reforms usually fail, and the more global and grandiose the initial

claims of potential success, the more we learn later that success is not possible or highly unlikely,

at least not in the way comprehended by either researchers or practitioners. There may be other goals

achieved through the effort that were not an original or stated goal, but we learned after program

implementation and a period of operation other details and facts regarding program impact. This

is an important point made by Berman and Fox.

The authors explicate the four ‘‘principal themes’’ of failure: not all failure is alike, failure is

rarely black and white, politics plays an important role in defining success or failure, and implemen-

tation is as important as ideas. For the experienced researcher, these themes are well understood. For

the criminal justice practitioner, what plays most heavily on them is politics. Anyone who has been

around criminal justice administrators for long periods of time learns the trite and cynical phrase ‘‘it

is all politics.’’

Through their description of various program efforts and subsequent failures, Berman and Fox

provide some interesting and useful thoughts on why programs failed and how we can learn from

failure. This is valuable. Where the analysis falls short, however, is the portrayal of the complex-

ities of the political process. They state, for example, how one innovative and politically astute

professor was able to put off the political tendency of legislators to create draconian legislation

after a horrific and celebrated case in the state of Connecticut. I have no doubt the professor’s

input and experience were invaluable to moving legislation beyond the emotions of the situation

to create prudent sentencing policy, but the political process is not about individual effort, but

instead, rests on collective response. Politics is a collective endeavor not an individual game.

Legislation rises and falls with political coalitions. It would have been nice to see how political

coalitions formed and aligned with this professor to get desired legislation passed in the aftermath

of the horrible crime that led to initial coalition-building promoting harsher sentences for repeat

criminals. Little of this analysis is present.

Similarly, I believe it is possible to analyze the other examples of criminal justice failure

described in the book using the same focus. Some possible questions are the following: Who were

the entities outside of the St. Louis Police Department against the consent search program after its

apparent initial success? What were insurance providers saying about drug treatment courts in

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