Organizational Change Through Individual Empowerment: Applying Social Psychology in Prisons and Policing

How does meaningful change occur? What is the role of the psychologist in promoting change? These questions drive this incisive retrospective by social psychologist Hans Toch, whose groundbreaking work among police, corrections officers, and inmates has long been centered on simple tenets: treat humans as human, ameliorate environmental harm, and promote democracy by teaching individuals how to stand up and participate in their lives. Filled with amusing anecdotes and the wisdom of experience, this text demonstrates the best that a life in applied psychology has to offer: a commitment not to behavioral theories or institutions, but to people.