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Fascinating. I learned a lot about the prison industry.
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Crime and Punishment in America
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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.
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.
240 pages, Paperback
First published October 15,1998
This edition
- Format
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240 pages, Paperback
- Published
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October 15, 1998 by Picador
- ISBN
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9780805060164
- ASIN
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0805060162
- Language
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English
About the author
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Elliott Currie is the author of The Road to Whatever, Confronting Crime, Reckoning, and Crime and Punishment in America. An internationally recognized authority on youth and crime, he is a professor of criminology, law, and society at the University of California, Irvine.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/elliot...
http://us.macmillan.com/author/elliot...
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I'm extremely sympathetic to the arguments that Currie made in this book, but I found the manner in which he made them to be misleading and disingenuous. He would cite an econometric study that supports his viewpoint in one paragraph and then, in the very next paragraph, dismiss an econometric study that opposes his viewpoint as mathematical sorcery that "mere mortals struggle to comprehend." You can't have it both ways.
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Elliott Currie exposes many issues about why the American prison population has been escalating out of control. He primarily focuses on the youth of America and how child abuse and neglect plays a major role in future violent offenders. In one instance 14 members of death row had experienced some form of child abuse during their early years. In his closing statement, Currie leaves the condition of our penal system up to the citizens of this country because it is up to us if we want to control our inmate population.
I found Crime and Punishment in America to be an exceptional read. While I fully agreed with Currie's stance on child abuse, I still disagree with his assertion that punishment does not work as a form of correction and justice. It truly is up to us to change the escalating condition of our over populated system, and books such as Currie's are well on there way to educating the population on this issue.
I found Crime and Punishment in America to be an exceptional read. While I fully agreed with Currie's stance on child abuse, I still disagree with his assertion that punishment does not work as a form of correction and justice. It truly is up to us to change the escalating condition of our over populated system, and books such as Currie's are well on there way to educating the population on this issue.
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Currie explores the American legal system and how criminals are treated.
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“It's rather that the experience of life year in, year out at the bottom of a harsh, depriving, and excluding social system wears away at the psychological and communal conditions that sustain healthy human development.
It stunts children's intellectual and emotional growth, undercuts parents' ability to raise children caringly and effectively, increases the risks of child abuse and neglect, and diminishes the capacity of adults to supervise the young.
It creates neighborhoods that are both dangerous and bereft of legitimate opportunities and role models, makes forming and maintaining families more difficult, and makes illicit activities far more alluring for teenagers and adults.
Life, in short, is harder, bleaker, less supportive, and more volatile at the bottom-especially when the bottom is as far down as it is in the United States, And those conditions, in ways both direct and indirect, both obvious and subtle, breed violent crime.” p130
It stunts children's intellectual and emotional growth, undercuts parents' ability to raise children caringly and effectively, increases the risks of child abuse and neglect, and diminishes the capacity of adults to supervise the young.
It creates neighborhoods that are both dangerous and bereft of legitimate opportunities and role models, makes forming and maintaining families more difficult, and makes illicit activities far more alluring for teenagers and adults.
Life, in short, is harder, bleaker, less supportive, and more volatile at the bottom-especially when the bottom is as far down as it is in the United States, And those conditions, in ways both direct and indirect, both obvious and subtle, breed violent crime.” p130
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Crime and Punishment in America was a nice change from the books I usually read. I have never really liked nonfiction books much, but this book was actually pretty interesting and fascinating to read. Before reading this, I could not even imagine how harsh and dark the criminal world is here in America. Currie lists many statistics showing how crime has changed over the years and tries to give some solutions to help slow and prevent more crimes from happening. His solutions are mainly creating social programs to help adolescents or victims of abuse or violence, but his solutions do prove to work quite well as he cites a few such programs that already exist for those reasons. Currie touches on many of the issues in America's crime and prison systems and completely gave me a new outlook of the issue. I would definitely recommend others to read this book if criminal justice intrigues them or if they are just curious at what really goes on in America's crime world.
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Elliott Currie delved himself deeply into the world of criminal delinquency and solutions to such problems. It sparked very interesting topics that could lead to many different conversations regarding such situations. As my research policy paper highlighted, Currie discussed the relationships between educational attainment and criminal activity. I thought this was a very interesting topic of discussion. Overall this book is a good representation that exemplifies conflicts within American society.
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