Over the past several decades, American penal exceptionalism—the tendency for U.S. penal policies and practices to proudly diverge from those of other Western countries—has severely limited the development of comparative criminal justice research from a U.S. perspective. However, in recent years, a growing consensus that America’s criminal justice policies and practices are too expensive, ineffective, excessively punitive, and often inhumane has laid the ground for a new phase of soul-searching. This article argues for an explicit rediscovering of comparative criminal justice policy in America, which would prove extremely helpful in providing bold yet practicable solutions in the current commendable but unimaginative era of criminal justice reform. We first contend that American exceptionalism is not as embedded in U.S. penal policy and culture as the past few decades might seem to suggest. Second, we discuss the main causes of the gradual demise of the comparative criminal justice enterprise in America. Finally, we discuss two areas of U.S. criminal justice reform suggesting mechanisms of comparative criminal justice policy that should be nurtured: (1) new prison reform initiatives pointing to renewed openness to comparative insights and (2) the growing chorus calling for prosecutorial reform, showing how many of the reform ideas proffered tap into characteristics found in continental systems.

在过去的几十年中，美国的刑法例外主义（美国的刑法政策和实践趋向于与其他西方国家相背离的趋势）从美国的角度严重限制了比较刑事司法研究的发展。但是，近年来，越来越多的共识认为，美国的刑事司法政策和做法过于昂贵，无效，过于惩罚和经常不人道，这为进行心灵探索的新阶段奠定了基础。本文主张明确重新发现美国的比较刑事司法政策，这将证明在当前值得称赞但缺乏想象力的刑事司法改革时代，为提供大胆而可行的解决方案非常有帮助。我们首先争辩说，美国的例外主义并没有像美国那样扎根 过去几十年的刑法政策和文化似乎暗示了这一点。其次，我们讨论了美国比较刑事司法事业逐渐消亡的主要原因。最后，我们讨论了美国刑事司法改革的两个领域，这些领域提出了应提倡的比较刑事司法政策机制：（1）新的监狱改革举措，指出对比较见解的重新开放，以及（2）越来越多的合唱团呼吁进行检察改革，这表明多少改革思想被赋予了大陆体系中发现的特征。