Criminal Justice: Criminal Justice Theories

Albert Eglesh wrote in the article "Beyond Restitution: Creative Restitution", that there are three types of criminal justice: retributive, rehabilitative, and restorative (Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment, 2002).  

Retributive justice views crime as acts that violate laws enacted by governments.  The state, as victim, demands accountability and receives retribution through means of punishment. 

Rehabilitative justice also views the government as victim and the offender as accountable through means of punishment, but it considers the offender as an individual in need of treatment. 

Restorative justice involves victim, offender and community in a process to restore and promote healing. 

The readings listed below are found in the book:

Cesare Beccaria - On Crimes and Punishment
Cesare Lombroso - Crime: Its Causes and Remedies
Edwin Sutherland - Differential Association
Robert H. Merton - Social Structure and Anomie
Albert K. Cohen - Delinquent Boys
Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin - Delinquency and Opportunity
Steven Spitzer - Toward a Marxian Theory of Deviance
Travis Hirschi - A Control Theory of Delinquency
Dorie Klein - The Etiology of Female Crime
Lawrence Cohen and Marcus Felson- A Routine Activity Approach