Dr. Lauren A Ricciardelli

Social workers have their hands in a lot of big sociopolitical issues. When it comes to the death penalty, their involvement is especially crucial. Social workers might support those receiving the sentence, engage with the families of those sentenced, participate in mitigation work, examine the critical discourse (psychiatric, psychological, and legal) leading up to and after the sentence, contribute to research surrounding mental health as it relates to the criminaljustice system, or even use social advocacy and policy practice to examine the death penalty. In Social Work, Criminal Justice, and the Death Penalty, professionals with backgrounds spanning, law, forensics, academia, and social work combine and explain their experiences surrounding this prominent social justice issue. The book is broken into three sections: Criminal Justice Considerations, Sociopolitical Considerations, and Applied Social Work Considerations. Across each section, chapters provide explicit implications for the social work professional in a criminal justicesetting. The resulting volume equips beginning professionals and students with a holistic overview of the intersection of criminal justice and social justice.

Social Work and Science in the 21st Century enhances the inclusion of natural science concepts and knowledge into social work education and practice. The book highlights basic scientific theories and ideas in a broad array of natural science fields, including chemistry, physics, astronomy, geometry, numbers, and big data. A number of chapters focus on how knowledge from the natural sciences can enhance social work practice in areas as diverse as medicine,
substance abuse, mental health, and intellectual and developmental disabilities, while other chapters on water, human geography, climate change, execution and the death penalty, and the life cycle are designed to highlight the natural science behind social issues. The information presented in the book is
complex enough to spark the reader's continued interest in knowing more about the natural sciences, but basic enough to allow readers with limited understanding of the natural sciences-at both the bachelor's and master's levels-to feel comfortable exploring its contents.