Studies of the intersection between music and law have traditionally focused on the place of music within copyright and intellectual property law. Music in American Crime Prevention and Punishment represents a significant departure from this conventional strand of analysis, as Hirsch has elected to concentrate instead on music's involvement in the US criminal justice system. Through a series of case studies, Hirsch takes the reader through a detailed analysis of the role played by music at various stages of the US criminal legal process, including its use in crime prevention, as evidence and as punishment. In doing so, she considers how the criminal justice system's treatment of music affects the Romantic notion of music as having the power to elevate, to effect moral transformation and to act as a window into the composer's soul.

Chapter 1 addresses the role of music in crime prevention, focusing on authorities' and property owners' use of classical music – and other kinds of music deemed ‘uncool’ – to banish undesirable social groups and activities from particular spaces, thus deterring hooliganism and loitering. In this context, classical music is used as a symbolic marker of space, designating particular areas as being ‘off-limits’ to certain groups. From a broader perspective, it also has the potential to act as a means for discrimination and segregation along age, class and wealth lines. In Chapter 2, Hirsch discusses the use of music as punishment for violators of noise legislation, in the context of the Music Immersion Programme implemented by Judge Paul Sacco of Fort Lupton, Colorado. The programme requires offenders to listen, as punishment, to a variety of music which they are unlikely to find appealing, such as those selected from genres that are seen as non-aggressive, that are associated with an older or a much younger demographic, and that are coded as ‘feminine’. Hirsch questions, in particular, the extent to which such punishment is capable of achieving the rehabilitative aim of criminal sentencing, as well as its proportionality to the severity of the offence, given the programme's potential to disrupt offenders' sense of self. Both of these chapters cast doubt on the Romantic conception of music as a civilising, rehabilitative force.

Chapter 3 investigates the use of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal prosecutions of their authors, where they are not only admitted as confession, intent or knowledge in respect of the crime concerned, but also used more generally as a form of negative character evidence by linking defendants with a perceived culture of violence. In the course of this discussion, Hirsch highlights the fallacy inherent in, on the one hand, treating rap lyrics as ordinary speech divorced from the contexts and conditions of their production and performance, thereby stripping them of their status as performance art and, on the other hand, continuing to rely on rap lyrics as being reflective of their composer's actions and intentions, in keeping with Romantic notions of music as high art. Chapter 4 examines the prosecution of cases in which music is alleged have functioned as an incitement to violence. In these cases, Hirsch argues, courts have frequently conflated charges of music as incitement with charges of obscenity; this gives rise to the implication that only music which is obscene – and therefore ‘non-art’ – can be linked with violence, thereby negating any potential correlation between music as ‘high art’ and violence. This, in turn, reinforces traditional beliefs that music has a solely elevating effect on its listeners.

The controversy surrounding the use of music programmes in prison is explored in Chapter 5. Hirsch demonstrates how public opposition to these programmes is inextricably linked to perceptions of music as a ‘privilege’ or ‘luxury’ to which prisoners are not entitled. Such public reactions, however, frequently fail to take into account music's role as an incentive in the maintenance of discipline and good behaviour in the day-to-day life of prison inmates, and as a means for prisoners to gain or regain a sense of self-identity. Chapter 6 moves away from the function of music within the criminal justice system and addresses instead its role in the US military complex, focusing on the use of music as torture in the context of the so-called war on terror. Hirsch explains how the US military is able to overcome detainees' self-control and willpower through the use of music which is at odds with the their perceptions and beliefs, which is associated with Western dominance and power, and which is characterised by lyrical and melodic repetition. This chapter also details the outrage which some sectors of the public have expressed over this perceived misuse of music, including public protests by well-known musicians whose works have been used for these purposes.

The book's close examination of music's function in the criminal justice system provides a unique framework for re-examining the Romantic conception of music as a largely positive force having the power to effect change, to enlighten, and to reflect the composer's innermost thoughts. As the case studies demonstrate, the use of music as crime prevention, punishment or torture is centred upon the listener's probable response to the music selected, rather than on the composer's intentions. Similar considerations also prevail in cases where music has been claimed to constitute incitement of violence, as the agency exercised by the listener negates claims that any single piece of music can definitively and unequivocally incite them to violence. The book also raises intriguing questions regarding the perceived goal of punishment in the criminal justice system, and whether music would be more appropriately employed in the furtherance of retributive or rehabilitative aims. The US-centric focus of the book is perhaps unavoidable given the cultural specificity of its subject matter, and the author has been careful to give examples of analogous case studies from other countries where these are available. Hopefully, this book will inspire further studies of the intersection between music and law, from a similarly fresh perspective, by scholars in other jurisdictions.