Gracious Plenty explores the challenges we face on our life's journey. How to live meaningful and purposeful lives, to be in the world, but not of it. How not to be carried away by fear and sorrow or puffed up with pride and the pursuit of power over others. These meditations and poems examine the difference between kindness and indifference, discernment and self-deception, and humility and hubris. Listening to the still, small voice and having a beginner's mind that can help people to rem...

This collection of stories explores the backroads and unexpected destinations and outcomes of the journey we call life. From the unexpected visitor who joins four friends eating breakfast at Cracker Barrel to a beloved grandfather sharing a long-held secret with his grandson to a desperate single mother with two small children who meets a used car salesman, these and other stories examine the crossroads of hope and despair--where mercy and justice often meet.

From liberating a Nazi concentration camp to fighting in the bloody Pacific, soldiers remembered and relived wartime experiences from Europe, the Pacific, Iraq, and Afghanistan. These stories explore the trauma of those who fought as well as the ones who waited for them. The dramatic challenges they faced in time of war tested their faith, conscience, and basic humanity as they tried to adjust to war’s aftermath with the help of those who loved them.

From drinking sweet tea on a beloved grandmother's porch to playing army to witnessing prejudice and violence or receiving the lash, these stories illustrate growing up in the South during the 1950s and 1960s, what it felt, tasted, and looked like through the eyes of the boys who lived it.

God's Scoundrels and Misfits examines the relationships of biblical characters with God and with each other. Some took advantage of the second chances God offered them while others missed the opportunities to change the direction of their lives. Lessons learned from the choices they made and the outcomes they experienced are explored in the context of modern families and individuals. Sibling rivalry, unbridled ambition, women's issues, suffering, and forgiveness are some of the issues that...

Corvettes and Thunderbirds are parked next to Studebakers, Beetles, and, in some cases, cars that may defy description of any kind in this collection of twenty-six original essays and stories about first cars, family cars, and even dream cars that traveled the highways and backroads of the authors' lives. Often hilarious, sometimes bittersweet, the stories are about growing up--although for some of us, where cars and trucks are concerned, we never quite do.

This book views peacemaking as a broad, encompassing process that is expressed in many different shapes and forms. It blends ancient-wisdom traditions, peacemaking criminology, and restorative justice principles as a way of intervening with offenders in both institutional and community-based settings. Philosophical and spiritual contexts for peacemaking are presented that form a foundation for understanding the potential for peacemaking in criminological thought, the criminal justice syste...

The forty-percent drop in crime that occurred across the U.S. from 1991 to 2000 remains largely an unsolved mystery. Even more puzzling is the eighty-percent drop over nineteen years in New York City. Twice as long and twice as large, it is the largest crime decline on record. In The City That Became Safe, Franklin E. Zimring seeks out the New York difference through a comprehensive investigation into the city's falling crime rates. The usual understanding is that aggressive polic...

A Guide to National Security offers an analysis of the threats and policy responses facing the UK, presented within the framework of the Government's National Security Strategy and the Strategic Defence and Security Review. It explores the processes and developments which have shaped the transformation of national security over the last three decades, and critically examines the processes of politicisation and securitisation that have delivered the new strategic vision. Presented in three ...

Successfully analyze crime at any level of law enforcement!This book is a practical resource guide for the development of crime analysis in local law enforcement. The tragedy of September 11, 2001, has raised awareness on how crucial it is to analyze information and intelligence. Smaller agencies that cannot financially justify hiring a full-time analyst will find strategies and techniques to teach officers the methods of analysis. Introduction to Crime Analysis: Basic Resources fo...

What happens when public prosecutors, the most powerful officials in the criminal justice system, seek convictions instead of justice? Why are cases involving well-to-do victims often prosecuted more vigorously than those involving poor victims? Why do wealthy defendants frequently enjoy more lenient plea bargains than the disadvantaged? In this eye-opening work, Angela J. Davis shines a much-needed light on the power of American prosecutors, revealing how the day-to-day practice of even t...

Covering criminal justice history on a cross-national basis, this book surveys criminal justice in Western civilization and American life chronologically from ancient times to the present. It is an introduction to the historical problems of crime, law enforcement and penology, set against the background of major historical events and movements. Integrating criminal justice history into the scope of European, British, French and American history, this text provides the opportunity for compa...