Transforming Justice, Transforming Lives

In this timely volume, April Bernard, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Chicago State University, examines the process of womens commitment to crime desistance. The research conducted for this report is based on the authors interviews with 10 women with criminal justice histories who were working for a Chicago-based crime prevention and conflict resolution organization. In particular, the study asks: What factors facilitate the womens commitment to desist from crime? Bernard locates these factors while attending to both external and internal aspects of these womens stories. In addition to her interviews, Bernard also integrates her experiences working with women at CeaseFire Illinois, an anti-violence program featured in the widely circulated documentary The Interrupters. According to Bernard, these womens experiences challenge deep-rooted assumptions that are aligned with views on crime that support the current retributive (punitive) criminal justice system. * Journal of Community Corrections * April Bernard provides an insightful investigation into how ten women with deep criminal histories from Chicago, through their commitment to desistance from crime and their active engagement in community crime prevention, were able to turn their lives around. Representative of a viably emerging paradigm to the failed wars on crime, dependent as they are on counterproductive approaches of deterrence and punishment, Transforming Justice, Transforming Lives, captures the essence of the alternative pathways to reducing crime and violence. Through oral histories, organizational and community analysis, and structural examination, Bernard makes the case for why mutual stewardships and universal social concern are more humane and cost effective means of reducing landscapes of crime, conflict, and violence than are the traditional get tough approaches to street crime. -- Gregg Barak, Eastern Michigan University; author of Violence and Nonviolence: Pathways to Understanding This important book recounts a tale of community-based peace-making and the lives of women determined to transform their slice of the streets of Chicago. Putting their own lives at risk, they mobilized their friends, neighbors and the faith community to directly confront the peace breakers, challenging them to also reconstruct their lives. Their victories were hard-won and the ground they gained will be hard to hold, but they were based on individual and collective commitment to change rather than fear of doing hard time. They promise to be robust and self-reinforcing, rooted in community in the deepest sense. -- Wesley G. Skogan, Northwestern University

April Bernard is assistant professor of criminal justice at Chicago State University.

Chapter 1: The Lens Chapter 2: Methodology Chapter 3: Pathways to Desistance Chapter 4: Reconstruction and Redemptive Opportunities Chapter 5: Cultivating Community Case: A Safe Haven Case: Ambassadors for Christ, We are all in Need of Redemption Case: Liberation Christian Center, An Empowerment Agenda Case: Vida Abundante, A Community of Care Chapter 6: The Female Offender as Peacemaker Chapter 7: Transformative Justice: Changing Patterns