Today marks the first-ever hearing on solitary confinement by the U.S. Senate’s Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights, but social scientists and legal scholars have been considering solitary’s detrimental effects for years. Scharff Smith reviews the literature and concludes that such effects depend on how long people are isolated and the conditions of their confinement.

As the Sanford, FL city commission voted “no confidence” in their police chief following the shooting of teen Trayvon Martin, this article is instructive in what legal scholars like Donald Black call violent “self-help”—a tactic vigilante citizens may use when they feel their government is not providing control and protection. In a classic piece, Smith and Uchida test this ideas, finding higher weapon ownership in areas in which police are perceived as ineffective and citizens report feeling vulnerable.

Today, the Supreme Court heard opening arguments in two cases regarding the possibility of life without parole as a sentence for juvenile offenders. This article reports data from polling in four states that challenges the idea that the public supports such incarceration over rehabilitation approaches for youth offenders. It remains to be seen what the Court will decide.

In a way, we can simply let The Nation’s review do the work on why you should read this book. David Scheffer writes:

I have long awaited the day when empirical research would help make the case for why the pursuit of international justice over the last two decades has been a worthy instrument not only of punishment, but also of deterrence. Now that day has arrived with Kathryn Sikkink’s important book. It fills a yawning gap in the literature of atrocity crimes.

But should reinforcement be necessary, let us add that The Justice Cascade is great scholarship gaining the wide—and glowing—reviews it deserves.

This article, published online in advance, makes a convincing case that climate change could become a driving force of crime rates over the next century. Agnew argues that changes in climate—heat, extreme weather events, food/water shortages—are likely to increase crime by increasing strain and conflict, weakening social supports and social controls, and increasing criminal opportunities.