Crimes without Cures
These lucid, detailed analyses of specific crimes and perpetrators underscore the proposition that the crime is typically the best evidence of the perpetrator's insanity. Criminal law is not absorbing and reflecting our emergent understanding of neuroscience, that free will is a myth, and that we currently have little ability to deter or "cure" violence.
This book shows that we are in a transitional phase of understanding -- when we can see that many "criminal" actions are equally beyond the realm of self-control and curative treatments. The public should be helped to recognizing this temporary state of affairs.
This book shows that the traditional canons of criminal law -- punishment and revenge -- are generally not useful concepts for dealing with serious offenders. We would end up with better decisions both in terms of public policy and in terms of specific cases, if we could accept that for now, we must take a wide range of actions to control/limit violent behavior for the sake of public safety, but not for the purposes of punishing or exacting revenge. (That wide range of actions would of course include many measures that this society will not accept -- such as gun control, reduced violence in the media).
One other very good thing about this book. Dr. Lewis manages to be specific and informative about the cases she reports without conveying to the reader the horror and suffering of the victims.