America now has the highest per capita prison population in the world. In an effort to determine whether the American criminal justice system has become dysfunctional, Lynch (director, the Project on Criminal Justice, Cato Institute, Washington, D.C.) gathers scholars, lawyers, and judges to critically examine Harvard law professor Harry Hart Jr.'s classic article, "The Aims of the Criminal Law," written in 1958. In essays written especially for this book, contributors create a dialogue with Hart's article, addressing issues such as suicide terrorism, drug legalization, and sexual predators. The role of civil commitment within the law, and the community's role in shaping law and punishment, are some other topics explored. Lynch's substantial introduction juxtaposes the original first principles of the nation's criminal justice system with the current state of US law. Hart's original article begins the book. Appendices provide a 1940 address by then-attorney general Robert Jackson; a 1984 article by Milton and Rose Friedman, and a 2003 speech by Anthony M. Kennedy, associate justice of the Supreme Court. The readership for the book includes policymakers, academics, and general readers. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)