A decade after its first publication, Class, Race, Gender, and Crime remains the only authored book to systematically address the impact of class, race, and gender on criminological theory and all phases of the criminal justice process. The new edition has been thoroughly revised, for easier use in courses, and updated throughout, including new examples ranging from Bernie Madoff and the recent financial crisis to the increasing impact of globalization.
In the United States, those who become involved or interact with the criminal justice system often experience the system differently based on their race, class, and/or gender. To better understand this problem, this textbook examines race, class, and gender from a historical perspective to help the reader make the connection between the terms' historical connotations and how they are used today. The remainder of the text focuses on how one's race, class, and/or gender can impact interactions with the police, courts, corrections, and reentry after prison. The second edition of this textbook embraces an intentional focus to include more diverse perspectives on the topics covered in the book. This includes the addition of a co-author as well as more references to the writings and research of those from diverse and often underrepresented backgrounds. A more in-depth examination of race and ethnicity also is included with a chapter now dedicated to each topic, their historical connotations, and how these terms are used today. A new chapter examining juveniles explores how childhood is constructed and how intersectionality impacts the experiences of youth in the juvenile justice system. Additional changes include updates to the militarization chapter which adds historical and contemporary perspectives of protest policing in light of the 2020 social unrest following the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. To provide more in-depth information on issues that are relevant to the topics being discussed, each chapter includes "In Focus" text boxes as well as a "Global Spotlight" text box that discusses the topic from a global perspective. Each chapter also ends with a series of discussion questions to encourage further engagement and reflection with the topic. Teaching materials includes PowerPoint lectures, test questions, and ideas for further classroom engagement. The fifteen chapters cover the following topics: * DEFINING RACE * DEFINING ETHNICITY * DEFINING SEX AND GENDER * DEFINING SOCIOECONMOIC STATUS, THE AMERICAN DREAM, AND COLONIALISM * THE EVER-EVOLVING DEFINITION OF CRIME * POLICE & COMMUNITIES: RACIAL PROFILING AND COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING * MILITARIZATION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT & AND PROTEST POLICING * JUDGES, PROSECUTORS, AND INDIGENT DEFENSE * JUVENILE JUSTICE: INTERSECTIONALITY AND SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF CHILDHOOD * THE DEATH PENALTY * OVERUSE OF INCARCERATION AND POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVES * REENTRY * DOMESTIC VIOLENCE * HUMAN TRAFFICKING * WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
The anthology Race, Gender, and Criminal Justice: Equality & Justice for All?, examines the ways in which race, ethnicity, class, and gender impact offenders as they move through the criminal justice system, and integrate back into the community. While many books in the field address race or gender in the criminal justice system, this book offers a detailed exploration of both. The book also looks at the unintended consequences of criminal justice policies on women and minorities, and considers what, if anything, is being done to address disparities. Written in an accessible manner, the book is divided into five main sections: - Understanding Race and Gender - The Police - The Courts - Corrections - Issues of Re-entry and Disenfranchisement The individual chapters of the book cover topics that are of high interest to students in the fields of Sociology and Criminology, including the difference between race and ethnicity, racial profiling, the role of specialized courts, prosecutorial discretion, and recidivism. Issues such as the death penalty, imprisonment rates, and drug policy are examined from both domestic and international perspectives. Each chapter includes information on accessing relevant YouTube videos, websites, non-profits, government agencies, and journal articles, giving students the opportunity for additional examination. There are also critical thinking questions to encourage class discussions. Race, Gender, and Criminal Justice: Equality & Justice for All? can be used in both lower and upper-division courses in Criminal Justice, Criminology, and Sociology. It is also an excellent supplementary text for courses in the areas of Political Science, Women's Studies, and Race/Black Studies. Adopting professors will receive PowerPoint slides to assist with lectures and test questions. Danielle McDonald received her Ph.D. in Criminology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2006. Currently, Dr. McDonald is an assistant professor of criminal justice at Northern Kentucky University. She teaches and conducts research in the areas of gender and crime, alternatives to incarceration, re-entry programming and service learning. Alexis Miller is an associate professor of criminal justice at Northern Kentucky University, where she teaches and conducts research in the areas of race and crime, college students and faculty perceptions of crime, and criminal justice and the media. Dr. Miller received her Ph.D. from the University of Louisville, in 1999.
This book presents an up-to-date analysis of women as victims of crime, as individuals under justice system supervision, and as professionals in the field. The text features an empowerment approach that is unified by underlying themes of the intersection of gender, race, and class; and evidence-based research. Personal narratives supplement research and statistics to help students connect the text material with real-life situations. This new edition is informed by consideration of major ongoing social movements such as #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, and the fight to reduce mass incarceration. The text stresses contemporary topics such as recognition of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues in juvenile and adult facilities; the introduction of trauma-informed care in detention centers and prisons; the criminalization of Black girls and women; the effects of an increasingly militarized police culture; and the contributions of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and other influential women. With its emphasis on critical thinking, this text is ideal for undergraduate courses concerning women in the justice system.
The Gender of Crime introduces readers to how gender shapes our understanding of every aspect of crime—from defining what crime is to governing how crime is punished. The second edition of this award-winning book maintains the accessible, reader-friendly narrative of the first edition with key updates and new material throughout, including increased focus on the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality in crime and punishment; more attention to LGBTQ issues; additional coverage of gender and crime on college campuses; and more. This dynamic and provocative book illustrates how gender is central to the definition, prosecution, and sentencing of crimes, that it shapes how victimization is experienced and understood, and how it structures the institutions of the criminal justice system and the experiences of workers within that system. The Gender of Crime demonstrates that crime, victimization, and crime control are never generic—they are instead produced and experienced by gendered (and raced, and classed, and sexualized) actors within contexts of social inequality. This book highlights key concepts and encourages readers to think through a range of compelling real-life examples, from school violence to corporate crime. The second edition of The Gender of Crime is essential reading for students of gender and sexuality, sociology, criminology, and criminal justice.
James W. Messerschmidt’s groundbreaking book Crime as Structured Action demonstrates that to understand crime, we must understand how crime operates through a complex series of gender, race, sexual, and class practices. In the second edition of this powerful book, Messerschmidt updates both structured action theory as well as several of the original case studies, and he includes a new case study that further brings structured action theory to life. The book also features expanded discussions of whiteness and sexuality, and their relationships to crime.
The use of intersectionality theory in the social sciences has proliferated in the past several years, putting forward the argument that the interconnected identities of individuals, and the way these identities are perceived and responded to by others, must be a necessary part of any analysis. Fundamentally, intersectionality claims that not only are people’s lived experiences affected by their racial identity and by their gender identity, but that these identities, and others, continually operate together and affect each other. With "official" statistical data that indicate people of Color have higher offending and victimization rates than White people, and with the overrepresentation of men and people of Color in the criminal legal system, new theories are required that address these phenomena and that are devoid of stereotypical or debasing underpinnings. Intersectionality and Criminology provides a comprehensive review of the need for, and use of, intersectionality in the study of crime, criminality, and the criminal legal system. This is essential reading for academics and students researching and studying in the fields of crime, criminal justice, theoretical criminology, and gender, race, and socioeconomic class.
This collection of essays and reviews represents the most significant and comprehensive writing on Shakespeare's A Comedy of Errors. Miola's edited work also features a comprehensive critical history, coupled with a full bibliography and photographs of major productions of the play from around the world. In the collection, there are five previously unpublished essays. The topics covered in these new essays are women in the play, the play's debt to contemporary theater, its critical and performance histories in Germany and Japan, the metrical variety of the play, and the distinctly modern perspective on the play as containing dark and disturbing elements. To compliment these new essays, the collection features significant scholarship and commentary on The Comedy of Errors that is published in obscure and difficulty accessible journals, newspapers, and other sources. This collection brings together these essays for the first time.
The author of this volume skillfully demonstrates that a vital component to understanding crime is to be able to view it as more than a single activity. James W. Messerschmidt argues that crime operates subtly through a complex series of gender, race and class practices and these interwoven elements must be seen as part of all social existence, not viewed independently.
How the attorney-client relationship favors the privileged in criminal court—and denies justice to the poor and to working-class people of color The number of Americans arrested, brought to court, and incarcerated has skyrocketed in recent decades. Criminal defendants come from all races and economic walks of life, but they experience punishment in vastly different ways. Privilege and Punishment examines how racial and class inequalities are embedded in the attorney-client relationship, providing a devastating portrait of inequality and injustice within and beyond the criminal courts. Matthew Clair conducted extensive fieldwork in the Boston court system, attending criminal hearings and interviewing defendants, lawyers, judges, police officers, and probation officers. In this eye-opening book, he uncovers how privilege and inequality play out in criminal court interactions. When disadvantaged defendants try to learn their legal rights and advocate for themselves, lawyers and judges often silence, coerce, and punish them. Privileged defendants, who are more likely to trust their defense attorneys, delegate authority to their lawyers, defer to judges, and are rewarded for their compliance. Clair shows how attempts to exercise legal rights often backfire on the poor and on working-class people of color, and how effective legal representation alone is no guarantee of justice. Superbly written and powerfully argued, Privilege and Punishment draws needed attention to the injustices that are perpetuated by the attorney-client relationship in today’s criminal courts, and describes the reforms needed to correct them.
