Crime and Culture in America

1986-11-07 Law

Author : Parviz Saney
Release : 1986-11-07
Genre : Law
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : /5 ( reviews)

Book Synopsis Crime and Culture in America by : Parviz Saney

Download or read book Crime and Culture in America written by Parviz Saney. This book was released on 1986-11-07. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Saney cogently argues that in the absence of adequate support within social and legal norms, a heavy burden is placed upon the criminal justice system, a burden that it cannot carry. Criminal law and the courts fail to provide for either swiftness or certainty of punishment; police have failed to overcome the basic American distrust of authority to gain the comparable support enjoyed by police in other countries; and the penal system operates under contradictory goals, isolated from public view or support. The final chapter presents a succinct set of proposals for changing the justice system to one that would be humane and more just. Choice This thought-provoking study of the crime problem in America provides an in-depth look at the sociological forces that are dominant in today's society and examines the possible influence of certain contemporary values and perceptions on criminal activity, the quality of justice in the American courts, and the attitude of the general public. The author discusses the various factors that can affect or encourage criminal behavior and relates these directly to the way people feel and respond to the incidence of crime and its punishment, and to a growing lack of confidence in the criminal justice system. Crime in America is first presented in a factual context, followed by a discussion of its cultural influences, and finally with a consideration of its criminal law aspects.

Governing Through Crime

2007-02-03 History

Author : Jonathan Simon
Release : 2007-02-03
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 085/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Governing Through Crime by : Jonathan Simon

Download or read book Governing Through Crime written by Jonathan Simon. This book was released on 2007-02-03. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across America today gated communities sprawl out from urban centers, employers enforce mandatory drug testing, and schools screen students with metal detectors. Social problems ranging from welfare dependency to educational inequality have been reconceptualized as crimes, with an attendant focus on assigning fault and imposing consequences. Even before the recent terrorist attacks, non-citizen residents had become subject to an increasingly harsh regime of detention and deportation, and prospective employees subjected to background checks. How and when did our everyday world become dominated by fear, every citizen treated as a potential criminal?In this startlingly original work, Jonathan Simon traces this pattern back to the collapse of the New Deal approach to governing during the 1960s when declining confidence in expert-guided government policies sent political leaders searching for new models of governance. The War on Crime offered a ready solution to their problem: politicians set agendas by drawing analogies to crime and redefined the ideal citizen as a crime victim, one whose vulnerabilities opened the door to overweening government intervention. By the 1980s, this transformation of the core powers of government had spilled over into the institutions that govern daily life. Soon our schools, our families, our workplaces, and our residential communities were being governed through crime.This powerful work concludes with a call for passive citizens to become engaged partners in the management of risk and the treatment of social ills. Only by coming together to produce security, can we free ourselves from a logic of domination by others, and from the fear that currently rules our everyday life.

Comic Book Crime

2013-07-15 Social Science

Author : Nickie D. Phillips
Release : 2013-07-15
Genre : Social Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 525/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Comic Book Crime by : Nickie D. Phillips

Download or read book Comic Book Crime written by Nickie D. Phillips. This book was released on 2013-07-15. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Superman, Batman, Daredevil, and Wonder Woman are iconic cultural figures that embody values of order, fairness, justice, and retribution. Comic Book Crime digs deep into these and other celebrated characters, providing a comprehensive understanding of crime and justice in contemporary American comic books. This is a world where justice is delivered, where heroes save ordinary citizens from certain doom, where evil is easily identified and thwarted by powers far greater than mere mortals could possess. Nickie Phillips and Staci Strobl explore these representations and show that comic books, as a historically important American cultural medium, participate in both reflecting and shaping an American ideological identity that is often focused on ideas of the apocalypse, utopia, retribution, and nationalism. Through an analysis of approximately 200 comic books sold from 2002 to 2010, as well as several years of immersion in comic book fan culture, Phillips and Strobl reveal the kinds of themes and plots popular comics feature in a post-9/11 context. They discuss heroes’ calculations of “deathworthiness,” or who should be killed in meting out justice, and how these judgments have as much to do with the hero’s character as they do with the actions of the villains. This fascinating volume also analyzes how class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation are used to construct difference for both the heroes and the villains in ways that are both conservative and progressive. Engaging, sharp, and insightful, Comic Book Crime is a fresh take on the very meaning of truth, justice, and the American way.

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