The rich get richer and the poor get prison : thinking critically about class and criminal justice
Jeffrey H. Reiman (Author), Paul Leighton (Author)
Examines the criminal justice system and explains how it is designed to use its weapons against the poor while ignoring or treating gently the rich who prey upon the public. Reiman and Leighton invite readers to look at the American criminal justice system as if it were aimed, not at protecting us against crime, but at keeping before our eyes--in our courts, prisons, news, screens, and criminology books--a large criminal population consisting primarily of poor people. The authors contend that this serves the interests of the rich and powerful by broadcasting the message that the real danger to most American comes from people below them on the economic ladder rather than above. Looking at the system from this perspective, they argue, makes more sense of the criminal justice policy than accepting the idea that the system is really aimed at protecting our lives, limbs, and possessions. Reiman and Leighton present extensive evidence from mainstream data and develop a theoretical perspective from which readers might understand these failures and evaluate them morally. --Adapted from preface and publisher description
Print Book, English, 2020
Twelfth edition View all formats and editions
Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, New York, NY, 2020
xxi, 260 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
9780367231781, 9780367231798, 0367231786, 0367231794
1180210832
ebook version :
Introduction: Criminal Justice Through the Looking Glass, or Winning by Losing 1. Crime Control in America: Nothing Succeeds Like Failure 2. A Crime by Any Other Name … 3. ... And the Poor Get Prison 4. To the Vanquished Belong the Spoils: Who Is Winning the Losing War Against Crime? Conclusion: Criminal Justice or Criminal Justice Appendix I: The Marxian Critique of Criminal Justice Appendix II: Between Philosophy and Criminology
Previous edition: New York, NY: Routledge, 2017