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This article seeks to identify the three most influential books in prison studies published throughout the 20th century. A diverse panel of 20 prison researchers has carried out book selections and deems Gresham Sykes's (1958) masterful work, The Society of Captives, the "champion." The article reviews each selection, discusses each book's influence on past and contemporary prison research, and identifies salient conceptual and empirical limitations. The article concludes with a call for more frequent scholarly journal exchanges between prison scholars who subscribe to competing conceptual frameworks and highlights some promising trends in prison research.

This study assesses competing explanations of inmate collective action using data from a nationwide sample of 317 adult maximum‐and medium‐security state prisons. Most previous studies have relied on data from only those prisons that have experienced riots. Hence, the conditions thought to cause collective outbursts may be equally present in prisons that did not experience such action. The current design allows for a comparison of riot and nonriot prisons. Additionally, this study examines the forces that generate other forms of collective action in prison, such as minor disturbances and inmate work stoppages. The results show that the variables under the administrative‐control theory heading, but not the inmate‐balance theory heading, help account for these events. Some consideration is given to the possibility that these two theories are complementary explanations.

The Oxford Handbook of Police and Policing brings together research on the development and operation of policing in the United States and elsewhere. Accomplished policing researchers Michael D. Reisig and Robert J. Kane have assembled a cast of renowned scholars to provide an authoritative and comprehensive overview of the institution of policing.

Over the last two decades, super-maximum custody (or 'supermax') prisons have become increasingly common throughout the American correctional landscape. Although these institutions can be justified using a variety of arguments (e.g. retribution), one of the most commonly used rationalizations is that they promote higher levels of prison order throughout the systems in which they are used. Because of the lack of direct empirical evidence to support this claim, we refer to this argument as the 'system-wide order' conjecture. In this essay, we explore the different pathways through which supermax prisons may achieve system-wide order. Our analysis suggests that the conceptual foundation upon which the system-wide order conjecture rests is unstable, and that empirical research is needed to resolve debates about the merits of supermax prisons in contributing to order in prison systems. We conclude by identifying critical research gaps that must be addressed to better understand the effects of this high-cost correctional approach.

Privatization in the correctional setting takes many forms. This article focuses on an extreme variant of correctional privatization—privately owned and operated facilities—and critically examines the philosophical argument used to legitimate the practice. Among the more problematic features identified include a reliance on an interpretation of liberal theory that muddles the distinction between rights and authority, and confusion regarding the libertarian conceptions of the ultraminimal and minimal state. As a result, the attempt to justify the delegation of coercive authority from the state to private agencies is questioned. The authors attempt to advance ongoing debate by discussing one method for identifying what privatization alternatives are consistent with liberal theory's conceptions of the individual and the state's authority to punish.

Proactive public administrators in modern American society are challenged to know and respond to the needs of their diverse constituencies if they are to direct responsive government agencies. However, more than just knowing citizens' needs and responding in kind unilaterally, local government in the community era is expected to engage the public in participative governance. This article describes how one such entity—the police department—is changing with regard to a philosophical shift in how it must conduct business in the future, and in turn, how it might employ community-oriented research methods to assess its progress and effectiveness among the citizens it serves.

Prescription drug misuse is a public health problem, and older adults are at high risk. The underlying factors associated with this problem in late adulthood are not well understood. Using cross-sectional data from telephone interviews with individuals aged 60 years and older in Arizona and Florida ( N = 2,000), this study tests whether hypotheses derived from general strain and low self-control theories are supported while investigating misusing prescription medication. Results from the regression analyses reveal that the association between poor health (conceptualized as a strain) and misusing prescription drugs (conceptualized as criminal coping) is partially explained by depressive symptoms (conceptualized as negative emotionality). The link between problem drinking and prescription drug misuse is fully attenuated when low self-control is included in the model. The results confirm that both theories provide insight into this public health problem and that treatment strategies should target the underlying mechanisms that lead to misuse.

Recent research has used both routine activity/lifestyle frameworks and self‐control theory to explain victimization. Thus far, combined tests of these theories have focused on offending populations and street crime victimization. Whether these frameworks also explain exposure to and likelihood of nonviolent victimization (e.g., fraud) in general‐population samples remains an open empirical question. Building on prior work, we assess the independent effects of routine consumer activities (i.e., remote purchasing) and low self‐control on the likelihood of fraud targeting and victimization. Using a representative sample of 922 adults from a statewide survey in Florida, the results confirm our expectation that remote‐purchasing activities increase consumers' risk of being targeted for fraud. Low self‐control has no effect on whether consumers are targeted, but it does significantly increase the likelihood of fraud victimization.

We use observations of police encounters with 3,130 suspects in Indianapolis and St. Petersburg to estimate three influences on police disrespect: how suspects behave, their personal characteristics, and the location of the encounter. Logistic regression models show that suspects' behaviors were the most powerful predictors, but the suspect's sex, age, income, and degree of neighborhood disadvantage were also significant. Minority suspects experienced disrespect less often than whites (statistically significant in the hierarchical analysis controlling for degree of neighborhood disadvantage). These effects are concentrated in St. Petersburg, where the chief had made the suppression of police abuses a visible priority. The findings offer partial confirmation of Donald Black's theory of law.