Crime, Equality, and the State

Book excerpt: This thoughtful collection of classic and contemporary readings reflects on contemporary U.S. criminal justice policy, entertains competing ideas about crime, and considers specific dilemmas of democracy and then proposes ways for the reader to consider these issues. Through the works of well-known scholars such as James Gilligan, Robert Sampson, and Alfred Blumstein, this reader compares welfarist and retributive approaches to crime, using the cases of social democratic countries versus the United States. By combining statistical analysis with ethnographic works, this collection enables the reader to recognize the actual people who comprise the statistics. "Crime, Inequality, and the State: " Offers critical reflection on American criminal justice policy. Includes competing perspectives and approaches to understanding the causes of crime. Challenges the legitimatization of law and political authority in a diverse society with low political participation. Presents alternatives to current systems. Explores the paradox of expanding crime, evident through a massive prison expansion, and falling crime rates from 1993-2000. Addresses the criminalization of behavior in a diverse society where social groups hold different norms. Discusses the idea that societies approach social ordering either through policing and policies of social control or through social welfare. Considers the argument that different societies respond differently to the inequalities within them. Vogel.doc Page 1 of 1