The Politics of Injustice : Crime and Punishment in America

Preface vii Acknowledgments for the Second Edition viii 1. Criminal Justice Expansion 1(12) Explaining the Expansion of the Penal System 4(3) Outline of the Book 7(6) 2. Crime in the United States 13(12) Crime in Historical Perspective 13(6) Crime in Comparative Perspective 19(3) Conclusion 22(3) 3. Murder, American Style 25(20) Popular Explanations of Violence 26(2) Guns 28(3) Inequality and Homicide 31(3) The Ecology of Urban Violence 34(8) Conclusion 42(3) 4. The Politics of Crime 45(28) The Origins of the Discourse of Law and Order 48(2) From the war on Poverty to the War on Crime 50(10) From the War on Crime to the War on Drugs 60(11) Conclusion 71(2) 5. Crime in the Media 73(30) Crime in the News 73(8) Crime as Entertainment 81(16) Media Imagery and Public Opinion 97(3) Conclusion 100(3) 6. Crime and Public Opinion 103(26) Fear of Crime 104(3) Crime as a Social Problem 107(4) Popular Punitiveness 111(5) Understanding Popular Punitiveness 116(5) Alternatives to Punitiveness 121(4) Minority Dissent 125(3) Conclusion 128(1) 7. Activism and the Politics of Crime 129(32) Community-Based Crime Prevention Efforts 130(10) The Victim's Rights Movement 140(9) Adversarial Activism: Human Rights Campaigns Against Police Brutality, Capital Punishment, and the War on Drugs 149(11) Conclusion 160(1) 8. Crime and Public Policy 161(28) Drug Policing 162(3) Punitive Sentencing 165(8) Return of Capital Punishment 173(2) Retreat From Juvenile Justice 175(1) Prisoner Warehousing 176(3) The Surveillance Society 179(2) Criminal Justice and Democracy 181(6) Conclusion 187(2) 9. Alternatives 189(16) Social Investment 190(2) Harm Reduction 192(4) Alternative Sentencing 196(1) Rehabilitating Reintegration 197(2) Toward Disarmament 199(2) Community Policing 201(3) Conclusion 204(1) Notes 205(12) References 217(26) Index 243(20) About the Authors 263