Latinos and Criminal Justice: An Encyclopedia. Edited by José Luis Morín. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2016. 506 p. Acid free $100 (ISBN: 978-0-313-35660-5). E-book available (978-0-313-35661-2), call for pricing.

This new reference work brings together a wealth of information from more than thirty scholars hitherto available only in a widely scattered array of academic literature, journalism, and government reports dealing with various aspects of the intersection of Latina/o peoples and the US criminal justice system. In the editor’s introduction, José Luis Morín states the need to fill this information void. While called “an encyclopedia,” this work is less a traditional A-Z reference source and more a collection of themed essays that thoroughly explore various subjects reflecting the most current research and analysis of issues that encompass scholarship in law, political science, ethnic and gender studies, as well as criminology and sociology. While the book includes an A-Z listing, in many cases the most thorough treatment of a given term or topic is provided in one or more of the nine in-depth essays at the beginning of the book. Cross-references from the A-Z section lead the reader to these essays, all of which provide extensive source bibliographies for the serious researcher. The thematic essays, for example—“Policing and Latina/o Communities,” “Incarceration and Latina/os in the United States,” “The U.S. War on Drugs and Latina/o Communities,” “Crime and the U.S.-Mexican Border”—are based on historic and current data sources and provide thoughtful, readable and critical overviews of complex topics. However, these characteristics also make the work less of a “look-it-up” ready reference tool—it is not the place to find fast facts or statistics.

Other reference works in law and criminal justice may mention Latina/os, Hispanics, or other related ethnic groups, but within the context of other topics. For example, Joshua Dressler’s Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice (Macmillan Reference USA, 2002) is more of a technical treatment of the components of the criminal justice system (police, courts, jails, prisons) and is in need of updating. Volume 2 of The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Social Issues, edited by Michael Shally-Jensen, (ABC-CLIO 2010) covers Criminal Justice in depth and includes relevant information but none of its articles are focused specifically on Latina/o communities. John Hartwell Moore’s Encyclopedia of Race and Racism (Macmillan Reference USA 2009) includes articles on Latina/o and Hispanic peoples, but is focused on broader anthropological, sociological theories of race and racism rather than on concrete aspects of the criminal justice system in the United States. The unique focus, coverage, and currency of Latinos and Criminal Justice: An Encyclopedia make this a valuable addition to the scholarly and reference literature.

I recommend the new Latinos and Criminal Justice to all university and college libraries and to larger public libraries serving the growing population of Latina/os in all regions of the United States.—Molly Molloy, Border and Latin American Specialist, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico