The Rich Get Richer

1
The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get
Prison Jeffrey Reiman
Crime in the Streets
2
The Looking Glass Winning by Losing

• Goal/function of United States criminal justice
  is to
• project to the American public a visible image
  of the threat of crime as a threat from the
  poor.
• The system maintains a stable and visible class
  of criminals
• Moral order crimes prostitution, drug use,
  gambling. Punishing victimless crimes increase
  secondary crime.
• Discretion who gets arrested, tried, convicted,
  sentenced. Arbitrariness guarantees rage rather
  than remorse.
• Painful and demeaning punishments. Humiliation
  and brutalization increases aggressive violence.
• No useful training while incarcerated. No
  employment upon release. Felon label.
• Disenfranchisement. Usual or likely suspects.
  Status offenses.

3
Pyrrhic defeat theory Nothing Succeeds Like
Failure
Pyrrhic Defeatthe failure of the criminal
justice system yields such benefits to those in
positions of power that it amounts to success.
Diverts attention from disparities in wealth and
power. Note Not intentional. Historical
inertiaevolved system.
Society fails to protect people from crime by
failing to alleviate the poverty that breeds
crime. fails to protect people from the most
serious dangers by failing to define these as
crimes and failing to consistently enforce the
law against affluent offenders. succeeds in
creating the image that crime is almost
exclusively the work of the poor.
4
Four Excuses for High Crime Rate in United States
Crime is caused by our youth. Crime has grown
faster than the proportion of young people. We
dont know how to reduce crime. Here is what we
know Poverty/inequality is a source of street
crime. Prisons perpetuates crime (labels, family
disruption, prisonization, disenfranchisement.) Gu
ns make crime more violent. Drugs (a)
criminalized (b) criminalization promotes crime.
Were too soft We are harsh. We have become
harsher. Harshness has little effect on
crime. Crime is the cost of modern life. Claim
Crime is naturally attendant to a complex,
populous, industrialized society. Either compared
to other nations or compared to regions and
cities within United States, this is untrue.
5
Crime and Poverty
6
Crime and Unemployment
7
Inequality and Imprisonment
8
Criminal Victimization by Family Income, 2000
(per 1,000 persons 12 and older)

Family Income
Less 7,500 25,000
75,000 than 7,500 to 14,999 to
34,999 or More
Type of Victimization
Crimes of Violence 60.3 37.8
29.8 22.3 Robbery (with injury) 2.1
1.0 1.0 0.6 Aggravated
Assault 14.7 9.5 6.2
4.4 Household Burglary 67.0 44.2
37.1 23.1
The poor and working class are more often crime
victims.
9
The Carnival Mirror
According to statistics, the typical criminal is
male, young, urban, black, and poor. Objective
reflection of criminal? No. Reality is filtered
through a system of human decisions. The shape
of the reality we see in the criminal justice
mirror is the outcome of all these
decisions. Human decisions are shaped by the
social order. Distortions of the social order
produce distortions in the mirror.
10
The Carnival Mirror
Who and what are not reflected in the mirror? If
peoplebelieve that the carnival mirror is a true
mirrorthey come to believe that whatever is the
target of the criminal justice system must be the
greatest threat to their well-being. A strange
alchemy takes place when people accept
uncritically the legitimacy of their
institutions What needs justification becomes
proof of justification.
11
Criminal Justice as Creative Art or the Social
Reality of Crime.
The reality of crime is created by the decisions
of legislators Criminal definitions do not
reflect the only or most dangerous antisocial
behaviors. police and prosecutors Patterns of
arrests and charges do not reflect the only or
most dangerous behaviors defined as
criminal. juries and judges Those convicted are
not the only or most dangerous criminals among
those arrested and charged. sentencing judges
Sentencing decisions do not reflect the goal of
protecting society from only or the most
dangerous of those convicted.