The Rich Get Richer And The Poor Get Prison Chapter 2 Analysis

Frank Trippett, in his excerpt from “A Red Light for Scofflaws”, claims that these days, every law-abiding citizen commits crimes no matter how big or how small. First, he provides general facts about the average citizen and what they do that goes against the law. He continues by stating that more and more people are becoming criminals by their actions. Trippett’s goal is to inform the public that whether a bank is being robbed or trash is being thrown out the window, it is still a crime. The author asserts an informative and knowledgeable tone for anyone who may think the word “crime” only has a strong meaning when it is related to a life-threatening or dangerous act.

Crime is defined by Urban Dictionary as an action or omission that constitutes an offense that may be prosecuted by the state and is punishable by law. This essay will focus on a Gilbert Paul Jordan. Gilbert was convicted of manslaughter, rape, and kidnapping throughout the 1960's and on going. This essay will also discuss the 3 main theoretical perspectives

“Thirty years ago, prosecution seemed deemed to take my life from me. They didn’t just take me from my family and friends. They had every intention of prosecuting me for something I didn’t do.” –Anthony Ray Hinton. On October 12, 2016 I attended a speech by Anthony Ray Hinton at the Johnson Fine Arts Center on Northern State University’s Campus in Aberdeen, SD.

So a criminal, they theorized must silence the urge to follow their moral compass and obligations to commit the crime (Linden, 2016). Much like the classical model, the criminal is conscious of the idea to commit the crime and has to made a conscious decision to commit an illegal act. David Matza and Gresham Sykes, developers of the neutralization techniques, theorized that the suspects did not fully reject their moral obligations, but replaced them by an illegitimate obligation (Linden, 2016). With the Las Vegas shootings, the police have not discovered Paddock’s motive for killing fifty-eight people and injuring more than four hundred people. However, it can be examined with respect to the sociological theory, that Paddock had a moral compass that knew this crime was wrong.

In his book, The Culture of Fear, Barry Glassner covers the methods and shortcomings of the television and print media and their motives when reporting crimes. Glassner respects our basic understanding that specific crimes are often sensationalized. He explains how the murder of a young Gulf War combat veteran upon returning home was used to turn the public’s attention towards violent crime in America. Unfortunately the young veterans’ death was actually a planned murder for insurance money, which the media neglected to mention. Glassner indicates that workplace violence and murders are portrayed as something akin to a disgruntled worker syndrome, but the reality is that 90% of workplace murders are committed by those intending to rob (Glassner

These variations of discrimination are the building blocks as to who considered criminal and how they are treated when it comes to the law. Government officials pass numerous laws pertaining to crime and imprisonment but never disclose the details regarding the economic factors. Several businesses, directly or indirectly connected to the prison industrial complex, continue to profit from the increase in inmate population. The prison corporation itself is able to make an even greater profit by exploiting inmates to slave-like labor for little to no compensation. This phenomenon is justified through the idea that the “criminal” is getting what they deserve as a way to recompense for their harm against

The criminal justice system may be more corrupt than the people who fill our prisons. It is amazing to see the many ways that certain parts of society actually benefit from the current system we support. This book,The Rich Get Richer and The Poor Get Prison, by authors Jeffrey Reiman and Paul Leighton, has open my eyes to a very corrupt idealism. They are very precise in their supporting examples as well by walking the reader through each step and analogy.

The U.S.’ prison population has increased by 500% from 1972 to 2003, accounting for a rise of 200,000 incarcerated persons to over 2,000,000, which is significantly higher than other developed countries. Growth in this population according to Mauer seems to be fueled by periods of rising crime rates, which the media loves to distort and blow out of proportion in order to instill fear in its citizens. Rather than addressing more important issues such as the underlying causes of crime, the media plays on its viewers’ fear by focusing on news such as gang violence, shootings, and drug activity. This reflects one of Mauer’s themes, the ‘dumbing-down of America’, where due to the controlling educational system, obedient media, and oppression; Americans

Although people have adequate exposure of crime in the society, but they are often mistaken that crime will be only occurred in the poorer neighborhood and among lower class of people. Yet, the truth is, a crime can be happened anywhere and by any class of people who have bad intentions. Furthermore, Merriam Webster actually defines crime as the activity that is against the law. By the presentation of Corona’s first degree murder case, Hamilton has successfully illustrated the example of a higher class people’s crime: “The farmer, who had contracted with Corona to hire field workers, returned the next day and saw the hole filled with dirt. At this point, it clearly explains that Corona was actually the higher class person in his society, he was the field worker contractor of the orchard owner and the superior for the field labors.

Not only are the outcomes of these felon disenfranchisement laws racist, but they are also classist. It is not news to many that the criminal justice system of the U.S. has many loopholes for rich people to pay their way out of jail time. The wealthy can afford top lawyers, pay bail, pay fines, and live in neighborhoods less frequently patrolled by the police. Defense lawyers for felony crimes can cost anywhere from $1000 to $2500 a day, and bail and fines are not on a sliding scale based off of income (NOLO, 2010). For an impoverished individual making only $1500 a month, the financial obstacles to fighting a winnable court case make conviction nearly inevitable.

In our everyday lives, we are confronted with crime coverage. From the news we watch, to popular TV shows and production movies. And the reason for this is there’s a large audience was in arresting and knowing what crimes are occurring. This type of audience believes that news provides factual information about the crimes that occur in our neighborhoods, our cities and all around the world. Benjamin Radford’s states in his article “How Television Distorts Reality” “The amount of time devoted to crime coverage is widely disproportion¬ ate to the amount of crime that actually occurs.”

Those members of society, who find themselves in a position of financial strain yet wish to achieve material success, resort to crime in order to achieve socially desirable goals. Material success is commonly perceived

You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later you’re going to...be punished for it” (O’Connor, 620). In the eyes of the Misfit, all crimes are held to the same degree, because no one is better than anyone else or

The consequences of the narrative of the threat of the poor creates a broken system where there become two courts, one for people with money, and one for those without. The significances become the creation of a perpetual cycle of legislature focusing not on getting people out of poverty to reduce the need for crime, but policy of making it easier for those in poverty to become criminals.

Even though at times people that are not criminals may express these different thinking errors, yet is most often seen in criminals. Each of these different errors, express what a criminal does, whether it is because they are in their own personal bubble, or whether they feel like they are entitled to