Privilege and Punishment

2022-06-21 Social Science

Author : Matthew Clair
Release : 2022-06-21
Genre : Social Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 87X/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Privilege and Punishment by : Matthew Clair

Download or read book Privilege and Punishment written by Matthew Clair. This book was released on 2022-06-21. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the attorney-client relationship favors the privileged in criminal court—and denies justice to the poor and to working-class people of color The number of Americans arrested, brought to court, and incarcerated has skyrocketed in recent decades. Criminal defendants come from all races and economic walks of life, but they experience punishment in vastly different ways. Privilege and Punishment examines how racial and class inequalities are embedded in the attorney-client relationship, providing a devastating portrait of inequality and injustice within and beyond the criminal courts. Matthew Clair conducted extensive fieldwork in the Boston court system, attending criminal hearings and interviewing defendants, lawyers, judges, police officers, and probation officers. In this eye-opening book, he uncovers how privilege and inequality play out in criminal court interactions. When disadvantaged defendants try to learn their legal rights and advocate for themselves, lawyers and judges often silence, coerce, and punish them. Privileged defendants, who are more likely to trust their defense attorneys, delegate authority to their lawyers, defer to judges, and are rewarded for their compliance. Clair shows how attempts to exercise legal rights often backfire on the poor and on working-class people of color, and how effective legal representation alone is no guarantee of justice. Superbly written and powerfully argued, Privilege and Punishment draws needed attention to the injustices that are perpetuated by the attorney-client relationship in today’s criminal courts, and describes the reforms needed to correct them.

The Lifer and the Lawyer

2020-12-09 Biography & Autobiography

Author : George Critchlow
Release : 2020-12-09
Genre : Biography & Autobiography
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 383/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Lifer and the Lawyer by : George Critchlow

Download or read book The Lifer and the Lawyer written by George Critchlow. This book was released on 2020-12-09. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is true that some people are very damaged. It is not true that they are all unsalvageable. The Lifer and the Lawyer raises questions about childhood trauma, religion, race, the purpose of punishment, and a criminal justice system that requires harmless old men to die in prison. It is a true story about Michael Anderson, an aging African American man who grew up poor and abused on Chicago's south side and became a violent and predatory criminal. Anderson has now spent the last forty-three years in prison as a result of a 1978 crime spree that took place in southeastern Washington. The book describes his spiritual and moral transformation in prison and challenges society's assumption that he was an irredeemable monster. It also tells the story of the author's evolving relationship with Anderson that began in 1979 when Critchlow, a young white lawyer from a privileged background, was appointed to defend Anderson on twenty-two violent felony charges. For Anderson, this is a story about overcoming childhood trauma and learning how to empathize and love through faith and self-knowledge. For Critchlow, the story also raises questions about how we become who we are--about race, culture, and opportunity. Finally, the book is a revealing commentary on our criminal justice system's obsession with life sentences.

Privilege or Punish

2009-04-20 Law

Author : Dan Markel
Release : 2009-04-20
Genre : Law
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 129/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Privilege or Punish by : Dan Markel

Download or read book Privilege or Punish written by Dan Markel. This book was released on 2009-04-20. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book answers two basic but under-appreciated questions: first, how does the American criminal justice system address a defendant's family status? And, second, how should a defendant's family status be recognized, if at all, in a criminal justice system situated within a liberal democracy committed to egalitarian principles of non-discrimination? After surveying the variety of "family ties benefits" and "family ties burdens" in our criminal justice system, the authors explain why policymakers and courts should view with caution and indeed skepticism any attempt to distribute these benefits or burdens based on one's family status. This is a controversial stance, but Markel, Collins, and Leib argue that in many circumstances there are simply too many costs to the criminal justice system when it gives special treatment based on one's family ties or responsibilities. Privilege or Punish breaks new ground by offering an important synthetic view of the intersection between crime, punishment, and the family. Although in recent years scholars have been successful in analyzing the indirect effects of certain criminal justice policies and practices on the family, few have recognized the panoply of laws (whether statutory or common law-based) expressly drawn to privilege or disadvantage persons based on family status alone. It is critically necessary to pause and think through how and why our laws intentionally target one's family status and how the underlying goals of such a choice might better be served in some cases. This book begins that vitally important conversation with an array of innovative policy recommendations that should be of interest to anyone interested in the improvement of our criminal justice system.

Privilege

2008-12-30 Juvenile Fiction

Author : Kate Brian
Release : 2008-12-30
Genre : Juvenile Fiction
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 591/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Privilege by : Kate Brian

Download or read book Privilege written by Kate Brian. This book was released on 2008-12-30. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After Ariana Osgood is arrested for mudering Thomas Pearson, she spends two years in jail plotting her escape to return to the glamorous life she left behind.

Crimes of Privilege

2001 Social Science

Author : Neal Shover
Release : 2001
Genre : Social Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 203/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Crimes of Privilege by : Neal Shover

Download or read book Crimes of Privilege written by Neal Shover. This book was released on 2001. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly six decades have passed since the concept of white-collar crime was introduced and systematic scholarly investigation of it began. Although it has proven to be one of the most challenging and controversial topics in sociology, the concept has taken firm root in lay and scholarly lexicons where it is widely understand and used to denote a type of crime that differs fundamentally from street crime. One way it is different is the backgrounds and characteristics of it perpetrators; the poor and disreputable fodder routinely encountered in police stations and in studies of street crime are seldom in evidence here. Most if not all white-collar offenders by contrast are distinguished by lives by privilege, much of it with origins in class inequality. This reader begins together under a unifying theoretical approach the current state of knowledge about and debate over white-collar crime. Editors' introductions preface each of the six chapters in the book, and each of the thirty-one carefully chosen selections --- both classic and contemporary -- has been significantly edited for readability and suitability for the college student. The readings address conceptual conflicts as well as empirical studies of the strucutre of opportunities, the characteristics of white-collar offenders and their decision making, and the various approaches to controlling white-collar offering. Additionally, the book includes twenty-one specially designed panels that call-out particular issues from the readings by offering case examples taken from local and regional newspapers. Together, the readings and the panels offer the student both analysis and examples of white-collar crime.

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