Read About My Books
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Violence and Nonviolence: Pathways to Understanding, 2003
"This book is well organized, thoroughly researched, and provides a well-rounded view of violence in all forms" as well as the "different models of nonviolence, models that attempt to restrucure society and the manner in which the community handles violent offenders....However, this book's biggest strength is the frequent use of case study illustrations."
"Various individuals can use this book in a variety of ways for different purposes," including "academics teaching undergraduate and graduate level course work related to victimology, violent crime," and peacemaking; "social workers that are involved in victim services"; "individuals who work with victims of violent crime"; and "legislators seeking new and innovative policy that would attempt to reduce and limit" violence while increasing nonviolence.
Megan A. Reynolds, Critical Criminology (2005)
FROM PREPUBLICATION REVIEWS...
"Barak's Violence and Nonviolence is a thoughtful, comprehensive examination of violence in the United States. Structurally and conceptually this book works. Barak addresses violence in an interdisciplinary way, addressing history, psychology, biology, cultural studies, and sociology. Moreover, Barak does an excellent job of discussing the intersection of race, class, and gender and those relationships with violence."
Heather Melton, University of Utah
"Clearly, the strength of this book is its comprehensive and reciprocal approach. I found this to be an enjoyable and provocative book with the potential to fill a major need for an accessible book that treats the topic holistically and offers a vision for overcoming current patterns of violence. I am convinced that this is an important work that will ultimately be well-received by undergraduates, graduate students, violence specialists, and general readers."
Mathew T. Lee, University of Akron
"I think that the strengths of this book are twofold: Barak's approach disaggregates violence into interpersonal, institutional, and structural violence which is very important yet rarely done; the latter part of the book explores the pathways to nonviolence, an underrepresented area in the study of violence."
Charis Kubrin, George Washington University
"I have devoted close to 20 years of studying and teaching about violence and I must say that this is a comprehensive book... I strongly believe that Barak has done an outstanding review of the extant literature and touches upon key issues of central concern to those of us who are social scientific experts on violence."
Walter DeKeseredy, Ohio University
Class, Race, Gender, and Crime: The Social Realities of Justice in America, 3rd ed, 2010
About the third edition:
A decade after its first publication, Class, Race, Gender, and Crime remains the only non-edited book to systematically address the impact of class, race, and gender on crime and all aspects of the administration of criminal justice, including the workers. The third edition has been thoroughly updated and revised to incorporate current data, recent theoretical developments, and new examples ranging from Bernie Madoff and the Wall Street financial crisis to the increasing impact of globalization.
Jeffrey Reiman, William Fraser McDowell Professor of Philosophy, American University
on the third edition...
The authors have revised and updated there excellent critical exploration of the impact of class, race, and gender on criminal justice practice in the United States. As with the earlier editions the book is written in clear, lively, jargon-free language and is an excellent text for students in criminal justice or criminology and criminal justice at all levels. No one can read this text without realizing the depth and complexity of problems that face those who would make our criminal justice system truly a system of justice.
Endorsements for the second edition:
"Class, Race, Gender & Crime...is highly recommended for those who wish to learn more about the complex ways that race, class, and gender condition the experience of justice - and injustice - in the United States. The book exposes the powerful and complex relationship between identity, structured social inequality, law, and the everyday practice of justice. The strengths of the new edition include extended discussion of victimization, criminal justice practice, and policy, as well as the interrogation of the role of law and media in the social construction of difference. Students in my classes praise the text for its readability, conceptual clarity, rich examples, and contemporary relevance- it's an informative and engaging read!"
Nancy Wonders, Professor & Chair, Department of Crimnial Justice, Northern Arizona Univeristy
"Its all here. Barak, Flavin, and Leighton demonstrate how class, race, gender, and crime--four explosive topics we're reluctant to talk about publicly--are interrelated and, more importantly, how these issues affect each and every one of us. For the authors, 'class' is not shorthand for the poor but includes the middle class and the upper class; 'gender' is not shorthand for women but includes men; 'race' is not shorthand for minorities, but includes Whites; and 'crime' is not shorthand for street crime but includes the crimes of the rich and the powerful. Enlightening, sobering, and ultimately essential reading. This is an admirable work."
Katheryn Russell-Brown, Professor of Law and Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations, University of Florida
Reviews of the first edition:
"Barak, Flavin, and Leighton succeed in constructing an accessible and sophisticated argument that outlines the complex ways that social location affects an individual's interpretation and experiences of and intent regarding justice, punishment, victimization, judicial processing, policing, and media representations of crime and crime control."
Mirelle Cohen, Teaching Sociology
"This book encourages the removal of the social lenses that blind society and its people to the reality of who the true criminals in our society are and defines actions that need to be undertaken in order for the whole society to benefit and not just the few individuals who have benefitted because of special privilege. This book would be appropriate as a primary textbook for introductory-level classes in criminology, criminal justice, and any other of the social sciences. This book could also prove to be an effective supplentary text for graduates in criminology and criminal justice because it views the interlocking social constructs of class, race, and gender that influence the entire criminal justice system and our society."
Bruce Wilson, Criminal Justice Review
Integrating Criminolgies, 1998
Matthew Robinson, Crime, Law, and Social Change
"...Barak's text is an original, thoughtful, accessible, and insightful analysis, laying out the necessary ingredients for an integrative, interdisciplinary criminological enterprise. From his critique of modern and postmodern conceptual synthesis to his assessment of postmodern integration, to his fusion of cultural, media, and gender studies, to his interdisciplinary approach to crime reduction..."
Bruce Arrigo, ACJS Today
From a review of both of my books on integration (see also the Anthologies page):
"Criminology is on the threshold of a Great Leap Forward. Barak's volumes, the first, a comprehensive text designed both for students and as a provocative challenge to criminology, the second a collection of republished articles in the integrative tradition, provide us with the last two stepping stones to a new criminological order. After reading these pioneering syntheses of criminological knowledge there can be no hesitation, no obligatory lip-service, no more making-the-case for integration. The case is made."
Stuart Henry, Social Pathology
Gimme Shelter: A Social History of Homelessness in Contemporary America, 1991
"This book is essential reading for researchers and policy analysts interested in housing- related issues. It is also a useful pedagogical tool for those who teach...courses in deviance, crime and delinquency, social stratification, criminal justice, social problems, and urban sociology."
Walter DeKeseredy, Contemporary Crises
"In a provocative tour de force, Gregg Barak has demystified and challenged what heretofore has constituted the United States government's portrayal of and reaction to homelessness in America..."
Robert Bohm, The Critical Criminologist
In Defense of Whom? A Critique of Criminal Justice Reform, 1980
Table of Contents:Introduction,Chapter 1, CRIMINAL LAW/CRIMINAL JUSTICE:The Foundation, Chapter 2, STATUS/POLITICS/ CLASS: The Profession, Chapter 3, THE PUBLIC DEFENDER: Reformation, Chapter 4, CRIME/ CLASS CONTROL: Progression, Chapter 5, THE EQUAL JUSTICE IDEAL: Liberation.
Prepublication Reviews for Criminology: An Integrated Approach (2009) "The book is beautifully organized, well written, and very interesting. It has a trio of virtues: the author does an excellent job of defining and showing the advantages of integrative approaches. He also refuses to allow readers to separate crime from criminal justice. This strikes me as distinctive and rather original. And I very much like the way he helps us to see how US criminology exists in relation to a a global approach." Lynn Chancer, Hunter College, CUNY "Barak provides the first integrated analysis of crime, criminal justice, and criminology through a global lens, revealing the importance of a global perspective for the study of crime and justice in the 21st century. While moving seamlessly from the micro bio-pyschological, interactive-social process to macro cultural-structural forces that shape crime and our responses to it, the author presents the reader with a feast of the latest criminological ideas in this sumptuous tome." Stuart Henry, California State University at San Diego "This text is different from what else is out there and in a very positive way. I like the way the author takes on the study of criminology in a novel way, integrating more mainstream theories with perspectives that have received less attention but that are just as important in explaining crime and criminal justice responses. I am also very impressed with the way in which Barak incorporates the new thinking aobut globalization and crime (providing interesting historical context) and adding a critique of the risk perspectives. Overal, this book will be an important text for courses where instructors want to explore different ideas and approaches about crime. It is provocative in a positive way." Leslie Kennedy, Rutgers University
