Book Review

It has been said that all criminal law is in reality moral law. In one way or another, “every line in the penal code tags some behavior as wrong—either deeply and inherently wrong or wrong because of its consequences” (Friedman, 1993, p. 125). What is right and wrong behavior has changed dramatically over the course of American history and even within the more recent generations. The public definition and perception of morality has consistently worked its way into the criminal law and continues to do so today. These issues of morality run deep within the American criminal law, and whether the debate centers on why the laws were created in the first place or over the more modern debates calling for the creation or abolishment of existing law, it is hard to ignore the symbiotic relationship between morality and the law. Research into these aspects of morality and the law is clearly not new to the field of criminal justice research. For instance, basic treatment of research in the area of criminal law explores elements of morality (e.g., Gardner & Anderson, 2000; Schmallenger 1999), whereas morality studies, found within the area of research related to criminal justice ethics, almost inherently looks at the law (e.g., Close & Meier, 1995; Souryal, 1998). Looking further, criminal justice research has also invested much of its time looking at concepts of moral law by engaging in studies on victimless crimes (R. F. Meier & Geis, 1997; Pavalko, 2000) and symbolic crimes (e.g., Jensen & Gerber, 1998) and within focal points of study where law, particularly law enforcement, and morality converge, such as issues of race (e.g., Walker, Spohn, & Delone, 2000) and class (e.g., Reiman, 1995). Research in the area of criminal justice policy has also dealt with issues of morality but generally only as an indirect element of the policy issue of concern, whether they are applied policy (e.g., McNeece & Roberts, 1997; Welsh & Harris, 1999) or theoretical treatments of the criminal justice public policy process (e.g., Houston & Parsons, 1998). In other words, the