American Sentencing surveys what is known about the hottest topic in American criminal law reform. Massive efforts are underway to make sentencing more just and sentences more effective, and to reduce the use of imprisonment. The writers are the leading scholars of their subjects and equally concerned with the law in action and on the books. Lawyers, public officials, criminologists, sociologists, political scientists, just about anyone who wants to know how sentencing works, why it doesn't, and how it can be made better, will find the answers in American Sentencing.