The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison

For 40 years, this classic text has taken the issue of economic inequality seriously and asked: Why are our prisons filled with the poor? Why aren't the tools of the criminal justice system being used to protect Americans from predatory business practices and to punish well-off people who cause widespread harm?

Autorentext

Jeffrey Reiman is the William Fraser McDowell Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at American University in Washington, DC. Dr. Reiman is the author of In Defense of Political Philosophy (1972), Justice and Modern Moral Philosophy (1990), Critical Moral Liberalism: Theory and Practice (1997), The Death Penalty: For and Against (with Louis P. Pojman, 1998), Abortion and the Ways We Value Human Life (1999), As Free and as Just as Possible (2012), and more than 60 articles in philosophy and criminal justice journals and anthologies.

Paul Leighton is a Professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology at Eastern Michigan University. Dr. Leighton is the co-author of Punishment for Sale (with Donna Selman, 2010) and Class, Race, Gender and Crime (6th edition, 2023). He has been president of the board of his local domestic violence shelter and is currently head of the advisory board of his university's food pantry.

Inhalt

Introduction: Criminal Justice Through the Looking Glass, or Winning and 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 Criminial Justice

Appendix II: Between Philosophy and Criminology