The Politics of Injustice: Crime and Punishment in America

The U.S. crime rate has dropped steadily for more than a decade, yet the rate of incarceration continues to skyrocket. Today, more than 2 million Americans are locked in prisons and jails with devastating consequences for poor families and communities, overcrowded institutions and overburdened taxpayers. How did the U.S. become the world′s leader in incarceration? Why have the numbers of women, juveniles, and people of color increased especially rapidly among the imprisoned?

The Politics of Injustice: Crime and Punishment in America, Second Edition is the first book to make widely accessible the new research on crime as a political and cultural issue. Katherine Beckett and Theodore Sasson provide readers with a robust analysis of the roles of crime, politics, media imagery and citizen activism in the making of criminal justice policy in the age of mass incarceration.

is the first book to make widely accessible the new research on crime as a political and cultural issue. Katherine Beckett and Theodore Sasson provide readers with a robust analysis of the roles of crime, politics, media imagery and citizen activism in the making of criminal justice policy in the age of mass incarceration.

Author: Katherine A. Beckett, Theodore Sasson
Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc
Published: 10/16/2003
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.81lbs
Size: 8.96h x 6.10w x 0.59d
ISBN: 9780761929949

About the Author
Sasson, Theodore: -

Theodore Sasson, Ph.D., is Chair and Associate Professor of Sociology, Middlebury College, where he teaches courses in criminology, political sociology, social theory, and media studies. He has also taught sociology and criminology at Northeastern University, Boston College, and the University of Southern Maine. He is the author of Crime Talk: How Citizens Construct a Social Problem (1995), as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters.

Beckett, Katherine A.: -

Katherine Beckett, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and in the Law, Societies and Justice Program at the University of Washington in Seattle. She teaches courses on law, culture, drugs, social control, and terrorism. She is the author of Making Crime Pay: Law and Order in Contemporary American Politics (1997), as well as numerous articles and chapters, including How Unregulated Is the U.S. Labor Market? The Dynamics of Jobs and Jails, 1980-1995, with Bruce Western (American Journal of Sociology, 1999).