Synopses & Reviews
“Earnest, free of jargon, lucid…This is a book that ought to be read by anyone concerned about crime and punishment in America.”—The Washington Post Book WorldA Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize
When Crime and Punishment in America was first published in 1998, the national incarceration rate had doubled in just over a decade, and yet the United States remained—by an overwhelming margin—the most violent industrialized society in the world.
Today, there are several hundred thousand more inmates in prison, yet violence remains endemic in many American communities. In this groundbreaking and revelatory work, renowned criminologist Elliott Currie offers a vivid critique of our nations prison policies and turns his penetrating eye toward recent developments in criminal justice, showing us the path to a more peaceable and just society. Cogent, compelling, and grounded in years of original research, this newly revised edition of Crime and Punishment in America will continue to frame the way we think about imprisonment for years to come.
Review
“Currie is an extraordinary sociologist who writes like a journalist....He offers a clear and compelling vision of how things could be different if the political will can be summoned to change the status quo.”—Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review
“Persuasively demonstrates the debilitating effects of extreme poverty on children....If our crime policy were a stock, shrewd investors would be selling it short.”—David J. Rothman, The New York Times Book Review
“A must-read.”—San Jose Mercury News
"If legislators and citizens absorbed Currie's sound policy alternatives, they might stop lurching down the path he shows is departing more and more from both science and common sense."—The New York Times Book Review
“Important and thoughtful.”—Chicago Tribune
“Earnest, free of jargon, lucid…This is a book that ought to be read by anyone concerned about crime and punishment in America.”—The Washington Post Book World
Synopsis
There are five times as many Americans behind bars today as in 1970, yet we remain the most violent industrial society on earth. This hard-hitting and accessible book dissects the myths that have given us both the industrial world's most swollen prison population and its highest rate of violent crime.
Synopsis
There are five times as many Americans behind bars today as in 1970. The national incarceration rate in 1997 was twice that in 1985. California's prison system has become the third largest in the world. And despite some limited recent declines in crime rates, we remain by far the most violent industrial society on earth.
Though our massive investment in the prison system has not resulted in enduring public safety, politicians and the media continue to insist that America's unique problem of violence is the result of a lenient society "soft" on criminals; that incarcerating an ever-larger proportion of our population is a "social program that works;" and that all other approaches to crime--from prevention to rehabilitation--have failed. Nationally acclaimed criminologist Elliott Currie dissects these myths in a groundbreaking book that is already changing the terms of the current debate.
Synopsis
A FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE
When Crime and Punishment in America was first published in 1998, the national incarceration rate had doubled in just over a decade, and yet the United States remained—by an overwhelming margin—the most violent industrialized society in the world.
Today, there are several hundred thousand more inmates in the penal system, yet violence remains endemic in many American communities. In this groundbreaking and revelatory work, renowned criminologist Elliott Currie offers a vivid critique of our nations prison policies and turns his penetrating eye toward recent developments in criminal justice, showing us the path to a more peaceable and just society. Cogent, compelling, and grounded in years of original research, this newly revised edition of Crime and Punishment in America will continue to frame the way we think about imprisonment for years to come.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [195]-220) and index.
About the Author
Elliott Currie is the author of
Confronting Crime, hailed as "original and incisive, the only realistic hope in years" (
The New York Times),
Reckoning, and the coauthor of the classic text
Crisis in American Institutions. Currie has taught sociology and criminology at Yale University and the University of California at Berkeley. He has been a consultant to a wide range of organizations, including the National Advisory Council on Economic Opportunity and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, and currently serves as vice-chair of the Eisenhower Foundation. An international authority on crime and punishment, Currie presently teaches in the Legal Studies Program at the University of California at Berkeley.