Guilty?: Crime, Punishment, and the Changing Face of Justice

A series of case studies, the book's first section, about deciding what behavior to criminalize, is most successful; the second and third--on punishment and due process--are also provocative. Kanefield allows readers to understand how notions of right and wrong change over time and across cultures, helping them begin to understand the complexities of crime and punishment. Reading list. Bib., glos., ind.

With this clear and compelling introduction to the U.S. criminal justice system, lawyer Teri Kanefield enables readers to form their own opinions about the field’s past, present, and future. Kanefield succinctly presents historically accepted ideas about broad topics (such as punishment and criminalized behavior), and then exposes their shortcomings. For instance, deciding on a convicted person’s sentence always will be “to some extent, arbitrary and a matter of opinion,” since “eye for an eye” is typically not a feasible form of retribution. Frequent references to real court cases highlight the legal and ethical gray areas that often arise in criminal justice. For example, should a man who left a bank with an extra $1,108.77 that his teller had mistakenly given him, be charged with bank robbery? Brief chapters with occasional text boxes, charts, photographs, and art reproductions make for an approachable read.

Kanefield writes about the American criminal justice system using a series of case studies, a fresh approach that allows her to present issues to middle-grade students in the same way that a lawyer or law student might learn about them. The book is divided into three parts, and the first section about deciding what behavior to criminalize is the most successful. The opening examples -- a man taking advantage of a bank teller's mistake, a boy buying a baseball card for the wrong price from an unwitting clerk, and the banking practice of manipulating transactions to charge customers higher fees -- help define what the crime of theft is, regardless of whether each is morally right. The second and third parts -- on punishment and due process, respectively -- are also quite provocative, pointing out the failures of our current system but without offering meaningful alternative solutions. That would be a tall order for such a slender volume, however, and the strengths of the book compensate for any shortcomings. Kanefield not only allows readers to understand how notions of right and wrong change over time and across cultures, helping them begin to understand the complexities of crime and punishment, but she will probably leave them eager to find out more. Appended with a glossary of legal terms, source notes, and an extensive bibliography. jonathan hunt