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Abstract: 

Two new books deal with important but seldom studied dimensions of how communities respond to offenders. “Peer Pressure, Peer Intervention: The Role of Friends in Crime and Conformity” by Barbara J. Costello and Trina L. Hope (Routledge) concludes that we need to pay as much attention to the influence of ‘short-term, situationally-induced’ motives for deviance as we do to the more enduring characteristics measured by many assessments. “Parental Incarceration: Personal Accounts and Developmental Impact,” edited by Denise Johnston and Megan Sullivan (Routledge), which argues that while little is known about the adult lives of children of incarcerated parents, it seems clear that the experience is often traumatic, and that services targeted to these children can significantly improve their lives.

Keywords: positive and negative peer influence; peer informal social control; services that target children of incarcerated parents; personal narratives

Affiliations:  1: Co-Editor.