This introductory penology textbook is a comprehensive guide to the field of penology that includes a discussion of the evidence-based correctional theories as well as the practical aspects of penology, from the point of view of the offender, the victim, the criminal justice system, and the society. Although the emphasis is on the American penal system and corrections in the U.S. today, there is also a key chapter on the history of punishment, so the current practices can be put in context, as well as an international and comparative approach, so penology can be seen in a global context.

Jan Yager, Ph.D. has a Ph.D. in sociology from The City University of New York Graduate Center(1983). She also has an M.A. in criminal justice from Goddard College Graduate Program. Her two year program (1975-77) was done under the supervision of Dr. Arthur Niederhoffer in the Department of Sociology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Dr. Yager is the award-winning author of numerous books including the highly-acclaimed groundbreaking study of Victims, published by Scribner's in 1978. For two years on a part-time basis Dr. Yager developed and administered the Community Crime Prevention Resource Center, through an LEAA grant, housed at Marymount Manhattan College on New York City's upper East Side. An adjunct assistant professor since August 2014 in the Department of Sociology of John Jay College of Criminal Justice teaching Penology and International Criminology, as well as Race and Ethnic Relations, previously Dr. Yager was a fulltime assistant professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at the New York Institute of Technology (1983-85), a visiting assistant professor at Penn State (Spring 1981) as well as other adjunct positions: University of Connecticut, Stamford campus, Sociology Department, 1999-2006; St. John's University; Temple University; and The New School. During the years she researched Victims, in addition to research trips to Belfast, Northern Ireland, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, conducting interviews with police officers, criminologist, psychiatrists, administrators of battered women shelters, offenders, ex-offenders, lawyers, and prosecutors, Dr. Yager participated in a volunteer program with inmates and ex-offenders at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility as well as working on a crime victim hotline.

For more on Dr. Yager, visit her main website: http: //www.drjanyager.com.