In Their Names: The Untold Story of Victims' Rights, Mass Incarceration, and the Future of Public Safety

In Their Names challenges the public safety myth that uses victims' rights to perpetuate mass incarceration and offers a formula for what would actually make us safe. Lenore Anderson, president of one of the nation's largest reform advocacy organizations, argues that the powerful myth that mass incarceration benefits victims obscures recognition of what most victims need, including addressing trauma, which is a leading cause of subsequent violent crime.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 15 December 2022
Publisher: The New Press

In 2009, Aswad Thomas, a 26-year-old recent college graduate, was shot twice while buying juice at a convenience store. The trauma left him in excruciating pain, with mounting medical debt, and struggling to cope with deep anxiety and fear. That same year, the national incarceration rate peaked. Despite thousands of new tough-on-crime policies and billions of new dollars pumped into "justice," Aswad never received victim compensation, support, or even basic levels of concern. In the name of victims, justice bureaucracies ballooned while most victims remained on their own.

Lenore Anderson, president of one of the nation's largest reform advocacy organizations, offers a close look at how the political call to help victims in the 1980s morphed into a demand for bigger bureaucracies and more incarceration, and cemented the long-standing chasm that exists between most victims and the justice system. She argues that the powerful myth that mass incarceration benefits victims obscures recognition of what most victims actually need, including addressing trauma, which is a leading cause of subsequent violent crime.

In Their Names is a solutions-oriented, paradigm-shifting book that argues persuasively for closing the gap between our public safety systems and crime survivors. It offers a formula for what would actually make us safe, from the widely respected head of the Alliance for Safety and Justice. The book challenges the public safety myth that uses victims' rights to perpetuate mass incarceration and offers a roadmap for creating a more just and effective justice system. It is a must-read for anyone interested in addressing the root causes of crime and creating a safer society for all.

Weight: 546g
Dimension: 150 x 224 x 33 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781620977125