The Politics of Injustice

Crime and Punishment in America
2. Auflage 2003
ISBN: 978-0-7619-2994-9
Verlag: Sage Publications, Inc

Buch, Englisch, 272 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 399 g

The U.S. crime rate has dropped steadily for more than a decade, yet the rate of incarceration continues to skyrocket. Today, more than 2 million Americans are locked in prisons and jails with devastating consequences for poor families and communities, overcrowded institutions and overburdened taxpayers. How did the U.S. become the world's leader in incarceration? Why have the numbers of women, juveniles, and people of color increased especially rapidly among the imprisoned?

The Politics of Injustice: Crime and Punishment in America, Second Edition is the first book to make widely accessible the new research on crime as a political and cultural issue. Katherine Beckett and Theodore Sasson provide readers with a robust analysis of the roles of crime, politics, media imagery and citizen activism in the making of criminal justice policy in the age of mass incarceration.

Features of this text:

- Critical Approach. Debunks myths about crime in the U.S., challenges many current anticrime policies that became harsher in the 1990s, and illuminates the political implications of crime and punishment.

- Contemporary. Updated throughout with particular attention to Chapter 5, "Crime in the Media," including research and analyses of crime in the news, crime as entertainment, and the interplay of news media, entertainment, and crime.

- Comprehensive Research. Draws on a wide range of scholarship, including research on crime's representation in political discourse and the mass media, public opinion, crime-related activism, and public policy.

- Consistent and Accessible. A great source to communicate new research to both non-specialists and specialists in accessible language with riveting, real-life examples.

Intended as a supplement for use in any criminal justice or criminology course, especially in the punishment, corrections and policy areas, The Politics of Injustice, Second Edition will appeal to those who take a critical approach to crime issues.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Beckett, Katherine

Beckett, Katherine A.

Sasson, Theodore

Fachgebiete

• Rechtswissenschaften Strafrecht Kriminologie, Strafverfolgung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface

Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Criminal Justice Expansion

Explaining the Expansion of the Penal System

Outline of the Book
Chapter 2. Crime in the United States

Crime in Historical Perspective

Crime in Comparative Perspective

Conclusion
Chapter 3. Murder, American Style

Popular Explanations of Violence

Guns
Inequality and Homicide

Conclusion
Chapter 4. The Politics of Crime

The Origins of the Discourse of Law and Order

From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime

From the War on Crime to the War on Drugs

Conclusion
Chapter 5. Crime in the Media

Crime in the News
Crime as Entertainment
The Police Drama

The Crime Film

The "Reality-Based" Cop Show
Media Imagery and Public Opinion
Conclusion
Chapter 6. Crime and Public Opinion

Fear of Crime

Crime as a Social Problem

Popular Punitiveness

Understanding Popular Punitiveness

Alternatives to Punitiveness

Minority Dissent

Conclusion
Chapter 7. Activism and the Politics of Crime

Community-Based Crime Prevention Efforts

The Victim Rights Movement

Adverasarial Activism: Human Rights Campaigns Against Police Brutality, Capital Punishment, and the War on Drugs
Conclusion

Chapter 8. Crime and Public Policy

Drug Policing

Punitive Sentencing

Return of Capital Punishment

Retreat From Juvenile Justice

Prisoner Warehousing

The Surveillance Society

Criminal Justice and Democracy

Conclusion

Chapter 9. Alternatives
Social Investment

Harm Reduction

Alternative Sentencing

Rehabilitating Reintegration

Toward Disarmament

Community Policing

Conclusion

Notes

References
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Sasson, Theodore
Theodore Sasson, Ph.D., is Chair and Associate Professor of Sociology, Middlebury College, where he teaches courses in criminology, political sociology, social theory, and media studies. He has also taught sociology and criminology at Northeastern University, Boston College, and the University of Southern Maine. He is the author of Crime Talk: How Citizens Construct a Social Problem (1995), as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters.

Beckett, Katherine A.
Katherine Beckett, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and in the Law, Societies and Justice Program at the University of Washington in Seattle. She teaches courses on law, culture, drugs, social control, and terrorism. She is the author of Making Crime Pay: Law and Order in Contemporary American Politics (1997), as well as numerous articles and chapters, including "How Unregulated Is the U.S. Labor Market? The Dynamics of Jobs and Jails, 1980-1995," with Bruce Western (American Journal of Sociology, 1999).