The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice
- ISBN-10
- 0205386644
- ISBN-13
- 9780205386642
- Series
- The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison
- Category
- Social Science / Sociology / General
- Pages
- 232
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2004
- Publisher
- Pearson/Allyn and Bacon
- Author
- Jeffrey H. Reiman
Description
What if our criminal justice system is biased against the poor from start to finish - from the definition of what constitutes a crime through the process of arrest, trial, and sentencing?
In this best-selling text, the author argues that actions of well-off people, such as the refusal to make workplaces safe, refusal to curtail deadly pollution, promotion of unnecessary surgery, and prescriptions for unnecessary drugs, cause occupational and environmental hazards to innocent members of the public and produce as much death, destruction, and financial loss as so-called crimes of the poor. However, these crimes of the well-off are rarely treated as severely as those of the poor. Reiman documents the extent of anti-poor bias in arrest, conviction, and sentencing practices and shows that the bias is conjoined with a general refusal to remedy the causes of crime-poverty, lack of education, and discrimination. As a result, the criminal justice system fails to reduce crime. The author uses numerous studies and examples to illustrate his points, and difficult concepts are explained in a non-technical manner. The book provokes thought and discussion, even among people who disagree with its content.
One reviewer describes the text as " one of the most outstanding critiques of the criminal justice process... a book that needed to be written and needs to be published again and again... a text as relevant today as when first published in 1979."
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2016-11-10
- 258 pages
- Paperback
- Taylor & Francis
Similar books
-
Childhood in Global Perspective
By Karen Wells... may be taken in by other family members or they may , as is increasingly the case in Africa , establish their own households , with the eldest children acting as heads of households ( Audemard and Vignikin 2006 ; Robson et al .
-
Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment
By Karen Kay Kirst-Ashman, Charles ZastrowIn this best-selling text BY social workers and FOR social workers, Charles Zastrow and Karen K. Kirst-Ashman, nationally prominent social work educators and authors, guide studetns in assessing and evaluating how individuals function ...
-
Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment
By Karen Kay Kirst-Ashman, Charles ZastrowKiev , A. ( 1980 , September ) . The courage to live . Cosmopolitan , pp . 301-308 . Kim , N. , Stanton , B. , Li , X. , Dickersin , K. , & Galbraith , J. ( 1997 ) . Effectiveness of the 40 adolescent AIDS - risk reduction interventions ...
-
Mapping the Social Landscape: Readings in Sociology
By Susan J. FergusonCharrière , H. 1969. Papillon . Robert Lafont . ... 6 NOT OUR KIND OF GIRL ELAINE BELL KAPLAN Social research is concerned with the definition and assessment of social phenomena . Many social concepts such as teen pregnancy are ...
-
淡定的爱, 优雅的活
By （美）卡耐基, 张艾佳行走世间，唯有淡定不破：遇事不慌、遇人不躁，拥有淡定、优雅的心，你，就可以重生！——美国心灵教父戴尔 ...
-
Feminism and the Legacy of Revolution: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chiapas
By Karen KampwirthBooth, John. 1985. The End and the Beginning: The Nicaraguan Revolution. Boulder: Westview. Booth, John, and Thomas W. Walker. 1989. Understanding Central America. Boulder: Westview Borge, Tomás. 1984. Carlos, the Dawn Ls No Longer ...
-
Social Structure and Law: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives
By William M. EvanReaders will profit from studying this volume which sets forth a rationale for theoretical and empirical contributions to the sociology of law.
-
Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality
By Nell Irvin Painter, Homi K. Bhabha, Kimberlé CrenshawAs I wrote in a recent tribute to Justice Marshall: There appears to be a deliberate retrenchment by a majority of the current Supreme Court on many basic issues of human rights that Thurgood Marshall advocated and that the Warren and ...
-
The Civilizing Process
By Norbert EliasThe Civilizing Process
-
Culture of Complaint: The Fraying of America
By Robert HughesCriticizes Pat Buchanan, Pat Robertson, Jessie Helms, and Ronald Reagan, political correctness, academic obsessions with theory, the art world, American infrastructure, and other targets