Shahidullah (criminal justice and sociology, U. of North Carolina) provides a global comparative examination of criminal justice systems and philosophies around the world, with the thematic concern of the impacts of modernization and globalization providing a unifying thread throughout. He opens the text with discussion of the nature, theories, and methods of comparative criminal justice conducted in chapters that address the theoretical perspectives of modernization theory, civilization theory, world-systems theory, and globalization theory; the nature and sources of data on crime trends and patterns; performance indicators for criminal justice systems in different countries; the value of national and regional crime surveys; and comparative institutions and values of criminal justice as benchmarks of comparison across the world's societies. The remaining chapters explore the influence of the balance between sacred and secular sources of law in four models of criminal justice systems that he categorizes as modern systems (e.g., the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia); modernizing systems (e.g., select countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America); traditional systems (e.g., Saudi Arabia and Iran); and dual systems (e.g., China, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Nigeria). Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)