Comparative Criminal Justice

Changing Paradigms
Why Compare?
Just Comparison
Ways of Making Sense
Explaining too Much?
The Challenge of the Global
Whose Sense?

David Nelken is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute of Sociology at the University of Macerata in Italy. He is also visiting Professor of Law (Criminology) at University College London where he was previously Reader in Law. His book The Limits of the Legal Process (Academic Press, 1983) gained an American Sociological Association Distinguished Scholar Award. He is general editor of the International Library of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Dartmouth) for whom he is editing a volume on White-Collar Crime. He will also shortly be publishing a book with N Passas on Controlling EC Fraud and for Pluto Press a book entitled Law's Truth.

CONTRIBUTORS OUTSIDE WESTERN HEMISPHERE



Nelken: Futures of Criminology



Stanley Cohen Hebrew University Jerusalem

Wayne Morrison Queen Mary and Westfield College, London

Massimo Pavarini University of BolognaPeter Rush University of Lancaster

Alison Young University of Lancaster

An accessible, engaging and sophisticated introduction to the challenges of truly comparative research on crime, criminal justice and penal policy-making. This is a gem of a book, that should help to place comparative studies where they belong, at the heart of the criminological enterprisePaul Roberts University of Nottingham



Comparative scholarship is riven with carelessness, and this primer shows us how to do it right. Both beginning students and advanced scholars alike have much to gain by a patiently working through this book. The book is not just for criminologists; it can be read with profit by anthropologists, political scientists, sociologists, legal scholars--indeed anyone who engages in comparative analysis on any topic. In short, all of us Malcolm M. FeeleyUniversity of California at Berkeley ,



This succinct yet sophisticated, learned and challenging tour de force highlights the pitfalls and problems of comparative research, but the even greater perils of ignoring the diversity of cultural approaches to crime and criminal justice. A definitive analysis by the leading scholar in the field Robert Reiner, Professor of Criminology, Law Department, London School of Economics



Comparative Criminal Justice provides a challenging perspective on comparative criminological enquiry. It is thought provoking throughout, particularly for the comparative researcher but also for criminologists looking to find broader underpinnings of their work. [Nelken] carefully sets comparative research as not a fringe endeavour but as part and parcel of criminology... The invitation to engage in comparative research that I perceive in Nelken's book is therefore extended well beyond those who think of themselves as comparatists but to criminology as a wholeInternational Journal of Law, Crime and Justice



...the book is not just a stimulating commentary on comparative research but also an introduction to the