Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins, Incapacitation: Penal Confinement and Restraint of Crime. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. $27.95 hard cover

Archambeault, William G.

English

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The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare Volume 23 Issue 2 June Article 10 June 1996 Review of Incapacitation: Penal Confinement and the Restraint of Crime. Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins. Reviewed by William G. Archambeault, Louisiana State University. William G. Archambeault Louisiana State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw  Part of the Social Work Commons Recommended Citation Archambeault, William G. (1996) "Review of Incapacitation: Penal Confinement and the Restraint of Crime. Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins. Reviewed by William G. Archambeault, Louisiana State University.," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 23 : Iss. 2 , Article 10. Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol23/iss2/10 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Social Work at ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact maira.bundza@wmich.edu. Book ReviewsFranklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins, Incapacitation: PenalConfinement and Restraint of Crime. New York: Oxford Univer-sity Press, 1995. $27.95 hard cover.For nearly thirty years, Gordon Hawkins and Franklin Zim-ring, either individually or collectively, have been providing theacademic community with stimulating and insightful analysesof criminal justice policy and practice in the United States. Con-sistently, these scholars produce works that are well researched,concisely written, and have clearly stated positions. They are ableto explain complex concepts in ways that enhance understanding.Their writings serve as knowledge platforms that engender livelyand provocative classroom discussions as well as debates in theapplied criminal justice community. Incapacitation: Penal Confine-ment and Restraint of Crime, the authors' present collaborativework, is no exception.The central theme of Incapacitation is plainly stated in the firstsentence of the book's preface: "Of all the justifications for crimi-nal punishment, the desire to incapacitate is the least complicated,the least studied, and often the most important." The authorsgo on to skillfully identify relevant literature, synthesize criticalcogent issues on the use of incapacitation in the United States,outline policy research directions of the future, and identify ar-eas of strengths and weaknesses in knowledge acquisition andresearch.The book is organized into three main sections. Section I,entitled "Concepts," consists of four chapters that identify keyideas, paradigms, ideology and theories of incapacitation. Thefirst chapter briefly traces the evolution of key 1970s justice para-digms of imprisonment, rehabilitation and incapacitation, thenconnects these to academic research. Selective incapacitation isdiscussed in the next chapter. In it, the authors trace incapacitationfrom the eighteenth century writings of Jeremy Bentham throughthe 1970s era of LEAA policy influence to the Greenwood, Blum-stein and National Academy of Science research of the early 1980s.In the third chapter the authors discuss "theory" in relationshipto the use of incapacitation. The fourth chapter concludes this144 Journal of Sociology & Social Welfaresection by focusing on issues of jurisprudence and due processof law.Section II, entitled "Research," includes Chapters 5 and 6.In these, the authors first critically evaluate the utility of threemethods of research that were used generally in the 1980s toassess "effects of imprisonment:" survey, official-record studiesand community-level studies. Then, the authors focus on Califor-nia crime research to illustrate the present inadequacies of crimeand incapacitation policy research. The authors conclude thatthere is a continuing need for multiple measures of communitylevel research, especially relationships between crime rates andcrime policies. They also suggest four areas for substantive futureresearch into the issue of incapacitation: "(1) identification ofdifferent patterns for different crime and offender types; (2) thedocumentation of patterns over time in individual offense fre-quencies; (3) the detection of variations in individual crime ratesthat are associated with large shifts in criminal justice policy, and(4) the study of incapacitation and specific offenses."Section III of the book is entitled "Policy" and consists ofChapters 7 and 8. The first examines the policy issues of costand benefit incapacitation by critically analyzing several differentstudies conducted by different academic disciplines. The authorsconclude that the 1980s research which focused on "costs and ben-efits of imprisonment in dollar terms" resulted in criminal justicestudies taking "a significant step backwards." The concludingchapter to the book is organized into four themes: (1) placingincapacitation in its socio-political context; (2) valuating the utilityof incapacitation in dealing with drug and property type crimes;(3) examining some of the factors and influences that limit theuse of imprisonment, and (4) the future of incarceration and inca-pacitation policy and research. The authors conclude that futurescholars will focus on selective, rather than on collective incapac-itation. They also argue that incarceration, in general, will occupya "less dominant position" in criminal justice policy making thanit has in the past.This book is most suited for criminal justice policy scholarsand graduate level courses in criminal justice, political or socialpolicy. It may also be useful in selected advanced undergrad-uate classes as well, but would not be appropriate for generalBook Reviews 145undergraduate usage. The authors presume that the reader hasa thorough background and understanding of: (1) the history ofAmerican criminal justice and judicial sentencing policy, espe-cially since the 1970s; (2) criminal justice practice and operations;and (3) criminal justice research and policy debate. They alsopresume that the reader has a substantial background in socio-logical theory, social-governmental policy and research methods.Without this substantial background, many readers would simplynot comprehend the complex issues that our presented.Incapacitation is a book written from the ideological perspec-tive of academic sociology with which some scholars may dis-agree. This perspective leads the authors to some inconsistenciesin their analyses. For example, on one hand the authors lamentthe fact that little meaningful applied policy research on incapac-itation was either conducted or published in the late 1970s and1980s. Yet, the authors fail to recognize the fact that sociologicalacademic values discourage applied research, prevent its fund-ing and inhibit its publication in scholarly sociology dominatedjournals---conditions that continue today.Despite its few weaknesses, Incapacitation is an example ofoutstanding academic scholarship. Its thoughtful reading anddiscussion should be considered mandatory for anyone interestedin criminal justice policy in the United States and the role thatpenal incarceration will take in the future.William G. ArchambeaultLouisiana State UniversityKathleen Barry, The Prostitution of Sexuality, New York: New YorkUniversity Press, 1995, $24.95 hardcover.Prostitution, like pornography, is one of those complex issuesthat painfully divides the women's movement-not surprisingly,given its explosive mix of sexuality, class, race and nationality.Feminists hold two basic positions on prostitution: first, it is alegitimate means for women to earn a living and should be de-criminalized, and second, it is inherently exploitative of womenand must be abolished. Kathleen Barry belongs firmly in thesecond camp, and has written a passionate argument for ending

Review of \u3cem\u3eIncapacitation: Penal Confinement and the Restraint of Crime.\u3c/em\u3e Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins. Reviewed by William G. Archambeault, Louisiana State University.

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Review of \u3cem\u3eIncapacitation: Penal Confinement and the Restraint of Crime.\u3c/em\u3e Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins. Reviewed by William G. Archambeault, Louisiana State University.

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