Power, Politics, and Crime

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 192 pages
• Published by: Westview Press November 1, 2000
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 081333487X
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0813334875
• Book Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 10.4 ounces

Southland Prison News
"An great guide that provides various tools and methods for thinking about how crime is perceived, defined and punished in American society."

Meda Chesney-Lind, University of Hawaii at Manoa
"In a sweeping indictment of over forty years of crime policy, Chambliss marshals evidence to show that America's war on crime has been a costly failure with terrible side effects. The work documents how, starting with Barry Goldwater's campaign, conservative politicians consciously sought to link crime problems to the civil rights movement. By the 1990s, this cynical and racist campaign has been so successful that even Democrats have enthusiastically embraced justice policies that have replaced a third of young African American males under correctional supervision. The war on drugs is a special target of Chambliss' analysis: not only has this war been a spectacular failure, it has spawned corruption while creating a correctional industrial complex. Casualties of the war on drugs are easy to find, Chambliss documents, with higher education leading the list. The most dramatic result, however, is that America now shares with the newly created state of Russia, the world's highest incarceration rate."

Reader Reviews
The author was my undergraduate advisor and he literally changed the course of my life. Everyone who reads this book is affected in a similar way. While the statistics are solid and powerful, the book is accessible to everyone on every level. Someone who has no previous exposure to the American criminal justice system can easily gain a large knowledge base while criminal justice scholars will find the book to be a powerful summary of much that is wrong with the current system and its function (or, more accurately, disfunction) within society. From the motives that drive government officials and police officers to the effects that labeling individuals as criminals at a young age to the amount of tax dollars spent and manipulated every year by the government and government-funded agencies, the book clearly and effectively drives home the point that each and every individual in this country is, in one way or another, a victim of the "War on Crime." The book is not preachy and does not make the reader feel as if they are being lectured but rather opens the reader's eyes as a view of the bigger picture inevitably hits home. Regardless of whether you consider yourself liberal, conservative, or just plain politically apathetic, reading this book will lead you to immediately develop an acute awareness that the American battle plan in the "war on crime" cannot prevail. The book thoughtfully and entertainingly compiles fact and truth in the form of statistics, research, and illustrative anecdotes in order to expose the real enemies in the war on crime. The American public is frequently made to believe that when it comes to our country's well-being, it's "us" against "them." I think Chambliss would agree with that; however, in every war, those standing on the battlefield where weapons have been drawn must choose a side and Chambliss makes clear that many people have unknowingly been given misleading ideas about who the "us" and "them" are. Simply stated, the effect of the book is to place every reader within the plot of a classic children's story. Too many have lived for too long with the fear that the sky is falling, not realizing that all are actually being cleverly lured into Foxy Loxy's den. If everyone in this country were required to read this book, America would be a better place.