This book analyzes the origins, contemporary trends, and consequences of sentencing reforms in the United States. It explores and clarifies the principles, current practices, and implementation problems of "get tough on crime" legislation that has been America's most predominant response to crime during the past two decades. In evaluating the impact of these reforms on courts, prisons, and crime, a theory of criminal sentencing reform is built and applied to the data across forty-seven states over almost thirty years. The author argues that policymakers tend to reduce complex reality to a simplistic form that predicts policy consequence and they tend to adhere to criminology theories that have policy implications that are consistent with their policy choices. The theory of criminal sentencing reform explains various causal links that link the following important factors: sentencing reform policies, sentencing behavior, the size of the prison population, and crime.

Tamasak Wicharaya is Deputy Superintendent of Police Administration Section in the Academic Section of the Police Cadet Academy, Sampran, Nakorn Pathom, Thailand.