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Read About My Books
To purchase my books online, simply click on the Book Cover
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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
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Class, Race, Gender, and Crime: The Social Realities of Justice in America, 2001 and 2007
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 "Barak, Flavin and Leighton don't only promise to integrate class, race, and gender analyses of criminal justice, they deliver! Chapters are introduced with striking examples from history, news stories or popular culture; and the text is written in lively and straightforward language: clear enough for beginning students of criminal justice or criminology, meaty enough for advanced undergrads and grad students. All will be challenged to think freshly and critically about criminal justice in America." Jeffrey Reiman, William Fraser McDowell Professor of Philosophy, American University 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
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Integrating Criminolgies, 1998
"Barak's Integrating Criminologies both summarizes theoretical integration and advances it. This is the primary emphasis and value of the book. Yet, the book is really at least three books in one. It is a book about theoretical integration, but it is also a book about criminology and criminal justice...useful for general classes in criminology and criminal justice, and for specific courses on theories of crime and criminality."
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 |
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Gimme Shelter: A Social History of Homelessness in Contemporary America, 1991
Selected by the American Library Association for the Choice List of Outstanding Academic Books for 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
A critical anecdote to the liberal interpretation of due process and the origins of the right of the accused to counsel, arguing that rather than the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) serving primarily to expand indigent defendants' rights, it more importantly helped to institutionalize the system of plea- bargaining as a more efficient and cheaper means of adjudicating poor criminal defendants.
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. |
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