Despite great effort and some improvements, criminal justice today still seems like an oxymoron. There are some very good reasons for this feeling: catastrophic failures abound and marginal improvements appear revolutionary. This book addresses the idea of justice in order to guide society toward a more effective justice system. Specifically, the authors argue that justice and love are one and the same thing. They trace impoverished and accomplished thinking in criminological and justice discourses and show that the historic ills that have plagued humanity tend to evaporate when justice and love are understood to be synonyms.

Michael J. DeValve is associate professor of criminal justice at Fayetteville State University.
Tammy S. Garland is professor of criminal justice at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga.
Elizabeth Q. Wright is associate professor of criminal justice at Middle Tennessee State University.