Drawing upon Catholic social teaching, traditional writings, and Sacred Scripture, this book presents a Catholic perspective of crime and criminal justice in America. Specifically, it presents a policy framework for the criminal justice system describing how and why police, courts, and corrections should adopt the tenets of restorative and community justice. In addition, it presents how certain crime-related issues would be addressed under a Catholic perspective, particularly focusing on the death penalty, abortion, euthanasia, and so-called victimless crimes.

This title was first published in 2000: The papers in this volume are concerned with the prevention of crime. Like other books in the International Library, the text is intended primarily for reference by those who need to reflect upon what criminology has had to say about important, contemporary concerns of criminal policy. The papers present a kind of history of ideas which together trace the emergence of some key components of contemporary thinking about reducing crime.