This book, which focuses on the way the victims’ rights movements of the 90s expanded mass incarceration without helping the majority of victims, should be required reading. Anderson eloquently traces the rise of victims’ rights movements to increases in incarceration rates to the rethinking of the ...more
Timely Conversation Needs Even Better Documentation. The timing of this book, releasing just a week before Election Day in the United States, could perhaps be *slightly* better - a month earlier would have allowed it and its ideas to be discussed more during the final days of the campaign. And to be ...more
Lenore Anderson does an excellent job of advocating for criminal justice reform that prioritizes the needs of victims. Through the use of both peer-reviewed research and the inclusion of vignettes of actual victims' experiences, the reader can't help but be swayed by the overwhelming evidence that c ...more
In Their Names shows how the victims’ rights movement has been used by the justice system to further a law and order approach that harms victims and continues mass incarceration. Anderson does a great job of showing how we fail victims, the progress made, and where we go in the future. Thank you to ...more
The book is about highlighting and, hopefully, changing the relationship between victim and the criminal Justice system so that there is a better outcome for all.
I raced through this book. Three strikes laws, mandatory minimums, more prisons, the history of how we decide who a “worthy” victim is an ...more
Lenore Anderson tells the story of the founding of a new form of crime victim advocacy -- crime victims who put violence prevention ahead of punishment, and who know that providing much more help to the people most vulnerable to everyday gun violence is the best path to prevention. This policy-focus ...more
This is still a bit too faithful to authoritarian institutions to me despite the fact that the entire book is about the problems with said institutions. That said, I liked how this author discussed trauma and violence. She managed to do so with empathy towards everyone involved rather than focusing ...more