Sentencing: A Social Process

Sentencing: A Social Process: Re-thinking Research and Policy explores how to make sense of judicial decision-making despite extensive international efforts to analyze, evaluate, and reform penal practices. The book considers why sentencing continues to puzzle observers even after decades of sustained critique and institutional intervention.

The volume demonstrates that scholarship and policy development have long been restricted by assumptions of autonomous individualism. This framework presents a distorted depiction of court decisions and limits perceived policy potential. By reinterpreting sentencing as an interactive social process, the work advances fresh directions for research and reform.

Part of the Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies series, the book addresses enduring dilemmas in the field, including the balance between punishment and rehabilitation and practical methods for decreasing imprisonment.