There are essentially two types of brakes: ones that are intended to produce the entire braking force, and ones that aren't. In the first case (e.g. entire braking force), knowledge of a lot of inter-related details is required (see JBoggs' post above). That being said, pretty much guaranteed a given brake is good for a range of application. In the second case (e.g. partial braking force), we have the same thing - but here you need to know how much braking force needs to be applied (i.e. 20%? 40%? 60%? of the actual total needed for a "full brake" approach). In the second case, another common term used is the "holding brake", where the idea is to keep the unit from moving once it's stopped (or to cause a complete stop from a very low rotational speed (few revolutions-per-minute).
With power electronics (e.g. a variable frequency drive) as an electrical source for your motor, you might have what is called regenerative braking capability. In effect, when "braking" the motor dumps electrical energy back into the drive which is then routed through something (most often, some sort of resistor) and heat is released. These types of drive are also called "4 quadrant" drives, since the ability to rectify power must cover all directions. These drives are a bit more expensive than the "cheap" drives used for non-regenerative applications.
Converting energy to motion for more than half a century