This book reviews the burgeoning literature on contemporary punishment and penal change, concentrating on the work of four scholars- David Garland, John Pratt, Hans Boutellier and Loic Wacquant. The book differs from classical reviews in that it places the scholars themselves, rather than the problem to be addressed, at the centre of the book. Daems argues that academics do not think and write in a vacuum, they carry a past with them and are influenced by new insights and theories, and constantly need to reposition themselves within their own field and their political environment. This book, then, is as much about the selected authors as the stories they bring. It includes four large chapters devoted to the work of each author, offering an expose of their work framed within the context of their lives. It offers a discussion of their central ideas and their distinctive approach towards questions of penal change and an analysis of the relationship between their roles as scholars in an academic environment and citizens in a political community. The scholar-oriented approach allows the author to deal with questions related to criminology's public persuasiveness - a timely analysis in view of recent calls for criminologists and other social scientists to enter public debate more directly. This book is an accessible and important contribution to the debate on recent penal change, presented in a way that both experts and non-experts will be able to follow. It will be 2f interest to criminologists, sociologists, socio-legal scholars, and criminal lawyers and students.

Winner of the Denis Carroll Prize (International Society for Criminology) and the Willem Nagel Prize (Dutch Society of Criminology)

About the Author
Tom Daems is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Criminal Law and the Leuven Institute of Criminology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. He is co-editor of Institutionalizing Restorative Justice (Willan Publishing 2006) and is Editor-in-Chief of FATIK: Tijdschrift voor Strafbeleid & Gevangeniswezen, a journal on penal policy and prisons, published by the Flemish League of Human Rights.

Reviews
well-written, and elaborates upon many theoretical concepts with ease * Jennifer Sloan, Policing Journal *
Overall, this book is worth reading by all criminologists for the important questions it raises about the way we approach our work. * Claire Hamilton, Punishment & Society 15(2) *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199559787
Author Tom Daems
Format Hardback
Page Count 318
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 521g
Dimensions(mm) 222mm * 145mm * 24mm