"Penal Systems" is a comprehensive, thematic introduction to the comparative study of penality throughout the world. Using analysis of twelve different countries (the USA, England/Wales, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Sweden, Finland and Japan), Michael Cavadino and James Dignan offer a genuinely international and integrated approach to comparative penology. They draw upon material provided by a team of eminent penologists from all the countries surveyed to produce a work of theoretical depth and coherence. "Penal Systems" provides both an excellent, highly readable introduction to the burgeoning field of comparative penology, and an important contribution to scholarship in this area. It is essential reading for any penology syllabus, and is valuable to students and researchers in comparative criminology and criminal justice.