The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison

...

people in power

bosses/police/teacher etc.

Dangerous acts: Poor vs rich

who is the criminal

people in hoods vs. white business men

typical bad guy (FBI-uniform crime report)

male, young, urban, black, poor

what is more dangerous ( blue collar crime or white color crime)

blue collar- working class crime

overt directive crime

petty theft/property crime/assault/ possession

white collar crime- high income people (

committed by a person who relies on their status or position to commit crime

tax fraud/embezzlement/ consumer deception / cyber

crime, or consequences of doing business

exposure

coal/textile/ cotton dust in the air

asbestos fibers

coal ars

repetitive motion

air/water/ground/noise pollution

consumer chemical warfare

cigarette smoke

food additives

Chapter 2- A Crime by Any Other Name…

Language of the law

Language: what is a “crime” who is a “criminal”?

Criminal law labels some acts as crime

Does criminal law create crime?

No, because criminal law reflects legitimate dangers

Criminal law reflects legitimate dangers

They are sometimes stretched and reinterpreted into something worse

Shape of mirror v. reality reflected

Real dangers v. created dangers

Crimes are socially created (Quinney) + changing social world=def of crimes change over time

So, throw out all criminal laws?

Return to pyrrhic defeat theory

Pyrrhic defeat theory (Reiman)

Failure of CJ system yields benefits, amounts to a victory

Crime must appear a certain way (5 hypotheses)

1. Legislative decisions (law)

who is a criminal, and what type of punishment they will receive

2. Police, prosecutor, decisions (arrest, charges)

3. Judges’, juries’ decisions (conviction)

4. Sentencing judges’ decisions (disproportionate to harm committed)

5. CJ policy decisions reflect implicit ID of crime with dangerous acts of the poor, amplified by media

Chapter 3- ...And the Poor Get Prison

Lecture 6 Part II: Weeding Out The Wealthy

“Crime” and CJ: Influenced by money + ethnicity

despite equally serious offenses+ similar prior offense records:

lower SES youth get referred to juvenile court…

upper SES youth get informally held…

Lower SES youth more likely to get institutionalized

Upper SES youth more likely to get probation

For Adults:

Poor person more likely to be arrested

If arrested, poor person more likely to be charged

“driving while black”—John Lamberth (Temple)

NJ Tpk (42,000 cars): B/W equal driving violations

B (73.2% stopped, arrested) v. W (13.5%)

From illegal discrimination against blacks, to legal discrimination against black criminals

Slavery, Jim Crow, northern ghettoization

“old Jim Crow”

criminal record as catalyst

legalized discrimination

employment/housing/education/public benefits/jury service

race effects on sentencing

if you’re sitting on a jury, you’re more likely to convict a black person and give them longer sentences, regardless of your race.

class effects on sentencing (esp. employment)

bad formula: race + class= worse than race or class (employment)

“new Jim Crow”

White-Collar Crime - The Respectable Kind?

Costly (table 3.1, pg 132) more $ than all FBI index crimes combined

Guess: how much do you think WCC costs? All FBI index crimes?

$610.3 billion v. $15.7 billion

WC criminals are rarely arrested/charged

More widespread than crimes of the poor

Assuming prosecution + conviction, WC sentences are lenient (compared to costs on society)

100-to-1

powder cocaine (affluent suburbs) vs. crack cocaine (inner-city neighborhoods)

1986-2010 Mandatory 5-year sentencing

500 g (17.6 oz) powder

5g (⅙ oz) crack

compare to

kidnapping 2-20 years

attempted murder 7-20

fair sentencing act 2010 (down to 18:1)

but crack offenses are 82% black, 8% white