SOURCE: "Criminal Policy Diverted, Justice Denied," in Wall Street Journal, April 3, 1995, p. A12.

[Below, Price gives Wendy Kaminer's It's All the Rage: Crime and Culture an unfavorable review.]

"Debates about crime control are rarely sensible," says lawyer-turned-writer Wendy Kaminer in It's All the Rage: Crime and Culture. Ms. Kaminer made her mark as a social critic with her 1992 book, I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional, taking on pop-psychology fads. In her new book she aims to bring sensibleness to a range of criminal-justice issues, especially the "abuse excuse" and capital punishment.

Ms. Kaminer's wit, dogged research and epigrammatically graceful writing in I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional give one high hopes for It's All the Rage. The epigrams are still there in her latest work, but much of the rest is missing. In her denunciation of abuse excuses—such as the "black-rage" defense dreamed up by lawyers for convicted Long Island Rail...