Crime and the Punished: An essential introduction to how sociologists think about and research crime and punishment.

Attention IACFP members: I came across this forthcoming title from W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. and The Society Pages, edited by former Contexts editors Douglas Hartmann (Editor, University of Minnesota), and Christopher Uggen (Editor, University of Minnesota). I picked up a copy at the recent ASA meeting, and I think this will be of real interest to many of you.

From the Norton Website:

(http://books.wwnorton.com/books/index.aspx)

"The second volume in this series tackles crime and punishment. As in the first volume, the chapters are organized into three main sections. “Core Contributions” exemplifies how sociologists and other social scientists think about otherwise familiar phenomena like crime, incarceration, and suicide. Chapters in the “Cultural Contexts” section engage crime in cultural realms—from politics to families to international crime and justice—that are often ignored or taken for granted among laypeople or in other social science disciplines. Finally, the “Critical Takes” chapters provide sociological commentary, perspective, and reflections on crime and its control."

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Changing Lenses: We Are the 1 in 100, by Christopher Uggen

Part 1: Core Contributions
    1. Six Social Sources of the U.S. Crime Drop, by Christopher Uggen and Suzy McElrath
    2. Climate Change and Crime with Robert Agnew, by Sarah Shannon
    3. Social Fact: The Great Depressions? by Deborah Carr and Julie A. Phillips
    4. Visualizing Punishment, by Sarah Shannon and Christopher Uggen

Part 2: Cultural Contexts
    5. Why Punishment Is Purple, by Joshua Page
    6. The Color Purple, by Jonathan Simon
    7. Repercussions of Incarceration on Close Relationships, by Megan Comfort
    8. International Criminal Justice, with Susanne Karstedt, Naomi Roht-Arriaza, Wenona Rymond-Richmond, and Kathryn Sikkink, by Shannon Golden and Hollie Nyseth Brehm
    9. The Crime of Genocide, by Hollie Nyseth Brehm

Part 3: Critical Takes 
    10. Correcting American Corrections, with Francis Cullen, David Garland, David Jacobs, and Jeremy Travis, by Sarah Lageson
    11. A Social Welfare Critique of Contemporary Crime Control, by Richard Rosenfeld and Steven F. Messner
    12. Juvenile Lifers, Learning to Lead, by Michelle Inderbitzin, Trevor Walraven, and Joshua Cain
    13. Discovering Desistance, with Shadd Maruna and Fergus McNeill, by Sarah Shannon and Sarah Lageson

High-profile Aaron Hernandez case brings extra pressure, DA says 'we welcome it'

(CNN) -- For District Attorney Sam Sutter, prosecuting fallen NFL football star Aaron Hernandez carries a kind of pressure unprecedented in his six years of service.

"Probably my career ... will be defined more by this case than all of the other things we've done," the top law enforcer in Bristol County, Massachusetts, told CNN.

"To that extent, there is added pressure. I can't say in any way that we shirk from it. We welcome it."

A crush of cameras and journalists follows Hernandez, the former New England Patriots tight end, each time he appears in court, including Thursday, when a grand jury indicted him on a first-degree murder charge in the execution-style shooting death of friend Odin Lloyd.

Hernandez, who is being held without bail, has pleaded not guilty.

Read more here.

Criminologists identify family killer characteristics

BBC News reports: Men who kill their families can be separated into four distinct types.

British criminologists have made the assessment after studying newspaper records of "family annihilator" events over the period from 1980 to 2012.

A family break-up was the most common trigger, followed by financial difficulties and honour killings.
Writing in the Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, the team lists the four types as self-righteous, anomic, disappointed, and paranoid.

Each category has slightly different motivations and many cases also have a hidden history of domestic abuse. In four out of five cases the murderers went on to kill themselves or attempted to do so.

The research revealed the most frequent month for the crime was in August, when fathers were likely to be with their children more often because of school holidays.

Read more here to uncover the four types of family killer.

Holder Proposes Major Changes in Criminal Justice System

Associated Press reports with the U.S. facing massive overcrowding in its prisons, Attorney General Eric Holder called Monday for major changes to the nation’s criminal justice system that would scale back the use of harsh sentences for certain drug-related crimes.

In remarks to the American Bar Association in San Francisco, Holder said he also favors diverting people convicted of low-level offenses to drug treatment and community service programs and expanding a prison program to allow for release of some elderly, non-violent offenders.

“We need to ensure that incarceration is used to punish, deter and rehabilitate — not merely to convict, warehouse and forget,” Holder said.

Read more here.

FBI allowed informants to commit 5,600 crimes

WASHINGTON — The FBI gave its informants permission to break the law at least 5,658 times in a single year, according to newly disclosed documents that show just how often the nation's top law enforcement agency enlists criminals to help it battle crime.

The U.S. Justice Department ordered the FBI to begin tracking crimes by its informants more than a decade ago, after the agency admitted that its agents had allowed Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger to operate a brutal crime ring in exchange for information about the Mafia. The FBI submits that tally to top Justice Department officials each year, but has never before made it public.

Agents authorized 15 crimes a day, on average, including everything from buying and selling illegal drugs to bribing government officials and plotting robberies. FBI officials have said in the past that permitting their informants — who are often criminals themselves — to break the law is an indispensable, if sometimes distasteful, part of investigating criminal organizations.

Read more here.