A collection of essays surveying the evolution of sentencing policies and practices in Western countries over the past several years. This book addresses plea-bargaining, community service, electronic monitoring, standards of use of incarceration, and legal perspectives on sentencing policy developments, among other topics.

Sentencing and Sanctions in Western Countries is an outstanding comparative study and it is almost impossible to do justice to such a collection in a brief review. It will, no doubt, become an essential reference point for anyone interested in the complex, somewhat tortuous, relationship between sentencing policy and crime and punishment." - - The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice (Vol.41, no.4, September 2002) "Sentencing and Sanctions in Western Countries is a significant step forward in establishing the comparative study of sentencing reform as a subject of importance to the policy analyst as well as the criminal lawyer. Tonry and Frase have assembled an all star cast of international authorities and generated a well organized volume that integrates the individual contributions into a coherent whole. The result is a readable book that will become a basic reference on a major topic."-Franklin E. Zimring, William G. Simon Professor of Law and Director of the Earl Warren Legal Institute at the University of California, Berkeley "For the policy maker, researcher, academic, or anyone who has serious interests and concerns about sentencing, the advice is simple: Read this book. You will not be disappointed. It investigates the relationship of sentencing policy to crime and punishment practices and the social and political climate of several western nations, including Finland, Germany, Australia, England and Wales, the United States, and the Netherlands. The book reminds us of the importance of developing a broader perspective on sentencing, looking at international standards of acceptability and elaborating the cross-national "project" of sentencing reform."-Anthony N. Doob, Centre of Criminology, University of Toronto