When Brute Force Fails

This is a clear, informative and realistic assessment of the public policy challenges posed by the American criminal justice system. The jewel at the center of Kleiman's book is the premise that the goal of crime reduction is compatible with a diminution of suffering at all organizational levels, including enforcement and punishment.

This very well written and researched book on crime prevention demonstrates the importance of thinking outside the box when addressing the problems of crime prevention. Short and certain sentences for things like drug offenses appear to work a lot better than harsh parole revocations at reducing the rate of recidivism.

America's criminal justice system has a problem. It locks up about 5 times more people than any other Western country, and the Pew Center calculated in 2008 that 1% of the adult population is now in jail.