A peacemaking approach to criminology is a humane, nonviolent, and scientific approach to the treatment of crime and the offender. It looks at crime as just one of the many types of suffering that exemplify human life. According to peacemaking criminologists, efforts to put a stop to such suffering need to take into account a main rebuilding of America's social institutions-such as the economic system and the criminal justice system-so that they no longer create suffering. In short, the U.S. as a society pays no notice to prevention but rather embraces the tenets of imprisonment and punishment. A peacemaking approach to criminology deals with prevention of crime and rehabilitation of offenders and involves principles of social justice and human rights. This collection of twenty-two essays provides a comprehensive introduction to a peacemaking approach to criminology.

Louis J. Gesualdi is an associate professor of sociology at the College of Professional Studies, St. John's University. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from Fordham University in 1988. He has published The Italian Immigrants in Connecticut, 1880-1940, The Religious Acculturation of the Italian American Catholics, and booklets on Italian Americans.