Over the last two decades, empirical evidence has increasingly supported the view that it is possible to reduce re-offending rates by rehabilitating offenders rather than simply punishing them. In fact, the pendulum's swing back from a pure punishment model to a rehabilitation model is arguably one of the most significant events in modern correctional policy. This comprehensive review argues that rehabilitation should focus both on promoting human goods (i.e. providing the offender with the essential ingredients for a 'good' life), as well as reducing/avoiding risk.

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Brings together a group of leading, international authorities in prisons research to address the complex issues of the effects of imprisonment, to assess the implications and results of research in this field, and to suggest ways of mitigating the often de

Resettling ex-prisoners into the community has become an important issue and, in the words of Janet Reno, "one of the most pressing problems we face as a nation." In the US over 600,000 prisoners leave prison each year, or over 1,600 each day, and they are finding it more difficult than ever before to re-enter society successfully. At the same time parole violations have more than doubled since 1980. The recent re-entry problem is not only a product of the rapid increase in rates of incarceration, but a leading cause of this as well. Yet this issue has not been well served by the...

Escape Routes: Contemporary Perspectives on Life After Punishment addresses the reasons why people stop offending, and the processes by which they are rehabilitated or resettled back into the community. Engaging with, and building upon, renewed criminological interest in this area, Escape Routes nevertheless broadens and enlivens the current debate. First, its scope goes beyond a narrowly-defined notion of crime and includes, for example, essays on religious redemption, the lives of ex-war criminals, and the relationship between ethnicity and desistance from crime. Second, contributors to...