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Of interest to criminal justice students, professionals, and the general public, this book seeks to give voice to parolees who live in the violent inner city. This book provides case studies about parolees who were released to the violent urban core.  Although the stories are reality-based, each case-study is fictionalized. Any similarity between characters in a story and real people or events is coincidental.

In Missouri, there are currently 54,000 ex-offenders on probation and 18,000 ex-offenders on parole (State of Missouri). Like states across the country, many of these probation and parolee clients are located in the state's major cities.  This website is designed to support the scholarly book, Stories of Parolees Residing in the Violent Urban Core, as a way of providing additional up-to-date information for people interested in the problems associated with poverty, crime, and violence in the inner cities across our nation.

The underlying philosophy of the book is that careful, active listening can be used to enhance investigative techniques and build client trust.  With an underlying theme of the importance of active communication, the authors advocate that truly hearing these muted voices is a worthy pursuit.  As part of studying the nature of communication in this context, seven themes emerged:

1. Violence is acceptable.

2. Retaliation is expected.

3. Power is a limited and a scarce resource.

4. Change doesn’t appear as an option.

5. There may not be a future.

6. Racism is common.

7. The government and governmental representatives are "out to get them."

"This collection of parolee stories shines a light into a usually darkened corner of society and asks all of us to care about people like Jamal, and Moses, and Rhonda, and so many others, who have served their debt to a society in which they believe they do not count."

--Jane Wood, Ph.D., English, University of Kansas

"This book gives professionals a chance to see into the eyes of the offender, to walk a day in their shoes and this book will help professionals have a better understanding of criminal behavior and how their own perspectives and preconceived notions in life impede the rehabilitation process for offenders."

--Danielle Alberta Cheers, Probation and Parole Officer
 

Sharp, T. L., & Aitken, J. E. (2010). Prisoners paroled to the violent streets describe their lives to us: Understanding where social rehabilitation must begin. New York:  Mellen.

Home - About the Authors - Book's Table of Contents - Discussion Questions - Edwin Mellen Press - Glossary - Resources - Summaries of Stories - Themes of the Stories