This encyclopedia doesn't play favorites, capturing personalities from both sides of the law in brisk thumbnail sketches. From Jane Addams, a leading social reformer who helped establish the first juvenile court in the 1890s, to Fernando Wood, one of 19th-century New York's most corrupt mayors, the cast of characters runs the gamut of the good, the bad, and those caught in between up to the present day. Janet Reno, who became the first female attorney general of the United States in 1993, is here, along with her troubles connected to the siege on the Waco, Texas, compound of David Koresh's religious cult, the Branch Davidians. There are the usual notorious suspects--Bonnie and Clyde, "Wild Bill" Hickok, and Meyer Lansky, among others--as well as a wealth of lesser-known notables like William Peist, a turncoat cop who supplied information to Mafia crime boss John Gotti, and John A. Larson, a former police officer and practicing psychiatrist who invented the polygraph "lie detector" test in 1921. The bulk of the passages cover the past two centuries, but there are significant contributions that date further back, including Hammurabi, king of ancient Babylon, whose legal code embodied the idea of "an eye for an eye."
The dictionary is accessible and tightly written, with a sophisticated style that belies the brevity of its passages. Many of the entries come with suggested books and further reading on the personalities, along with a wealth of historical photos and drawings. An extensive index allows for easy searching, not just for the 600 people profiled but for subjects such as "autopsies," "fingernail scrapings," and "self-incrimination," which in turn link to notables in those areas. And a thoughtful introduction delves into the difference between morality and legality, and the evolution of today's police system. Like Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and Black's Law Dictionary, this book deserves a place on a well-stocked reference shelf. --Jodi Mailander Farrell
