Controlling the Dangerous Classes

Controlling the Dangerous Classes
Author: Randall G. Shelden
Publisher: Waveland Press
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2017-12-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1478636939

Throughout history, the powerful have created laws, developed agencies to enforce those laws, and established institutions to punish lawbreakers. Maintaining the social order to their advantage resulted in the systematic repression of disadvantaged groups—the “dangerous classes.” The third edition retains a historical approach to exploring patterns of social control and, through current examples, demonstrates how those strategies continue today. The authors trace the roots of race, class, and gender bias in how laws are written, interpreted, and applied. The management of dangerous classes is not a recent phenomenon; there is a long history of keeping those who derive the least advantage from the status quo (and therefore pose the greatest threat) under control. There was and is one system of justice for the privileged and a very different system for the less privileged. The criminal justice system—from the law to daily operations of the police, courts, and corrections—generally comes down hardest on those with the least amount of power and influence and is the most lenient with those with the most power and influence. The book raises critical questions. What is a crime? What is law? Whose interests are served by the law and the criminal justice system? What patterns are repeated generation after generation? How does the criminal justice system relate to larger issues such as social inequality, social class, race, and gender? Contemplation of these topics contributes to informed public dialogue and careful deliberation about the present state and the future of criminal justice.

Controlling the Dangerous Classes

Controlling the Dangerous Classes
Author: Randall G. Shelden
Publisher: Allyn & Bacon
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2008
Genre: Law
ISBN:

This text covers the history of criminal justice from a critical perspective and explores the historical biases of the criminal justice system. The overall theme of this book is that both the making of laws and the interpretation and application of these laws throughout the history of the criminal justice system has, historically, been class, gender, and racially biased. Moreover, one of the major functions of the criminal justice system has been to control those from the most disadvantaged sectors of the population, that is, the "dangerous classes." This theme is explored using a historical model, tracing the development of criminal law through the development of the police institution, the juvenile justice system, and the prison system.

Thought Reform and China's Dangerous Classes

Thought Reform and China's Dangerous Classes
Author: Aminda M. Smith
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2013
Genre: China
ISBN: 144221838X

This book offers the first detailed study of the essential relationship between thought reform and the "dangerous classes"--The prostitutes, beggars, petty criminals, and other "lumpenproletarians" the Communists saw as a threat to society and the revolution. Aminda Smith takes readers inside early-PRC reformatories, where the new state endeavored to transform "vagrants" into members of the laboring masses. As places where "the people" were literally created, these centers became testing grounds for rapidly changing ideas and experiments about thought reform and the subjects they produced. Smit.

Crime Control as Industry

Crime Control as Industry
Author: Nils Christie
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2013-05-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1136792899

This classic text argues that crime control, rather than crime itself is the real danger for our future. Since the second edition was published in 1994, prison populations , especially in Russia and America, have grown at an increasingly rapid rate. This third edition is published to take account of these changes and draw attention to the scale of an escalating problem. It contains completely new chapters - one on 'penal geography', the other on 'the Russian case' - and has been extensively revised.

Controlling the Dangerous Classes

Controlling the Dangerous Classes
Author: Randall G. Shelden
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2001
Genre: Law
ISBN:

This book covers the history of criminal justice from a critical perspective and explores the historical biases of the criminal justice system. The overall theme of this book is that both the making of laws and the interpretation and application of these laws throughout the history of the criminal justice system has, historically, been class, gender, and racially biased. Moreover, one of the major functions of the criminal justice system has been to control those from the most disadvantaged sectors of the population, that is, the "dangerous classes." This theme is explored using a historical model, tracing the development of criminal law through the development of the police institution, the juvenile justice system, and the prison system. For anyone interested in the history of criminal justice.

Our Punitive Society

Our Punitive Society
Author: Randall G. Shelden
Publisher: Waveland Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2020-12-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1478646780

This reader-friendly exploration of the primary forces relevant to punishment—poverty and political powerlessness—highlights the necessity for humane alternatives to our current incarceration binge. This provocative overview looks at the business of punishment and at the historical patterns of control regarding slavery, the death penalty, women, the LGBTQ community, juveniles, and supervision. The United States has the world’s highest rate of incarceration—a form of punishment that separates the least privileged from the rest of society, creating populations of damaged lives. All of society pays the price for overly punitive sanctions. Equal justice is not possible in an unequal society. Up-to-date statistics illustrate the race, class, and gender inequalities in the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system has expanded for half a century. Will challenges to policing succeed in narrowing the net of social control? Will the cost of maintaining a massive system stimulate a transformation, or will stakeholders support minimal reforms that do not threaten their interests? The public is largely unaware of most of the workings of the criminal justice system. Through this engaging text, the authors hope to provide insights that encourage readers to examine the collateral effects of policies to address crime and the role of punishment.

The End of Policing

The End of Policing
Author: Alex S. Vitale
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2017-10-10
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1784782904

The massive uprising following the police killing of George Floyd in the summer of 2020--by some estimates the largest protests in US history--thrust the argument to defund the police to the forefront of international politics. It also made The End of Policing a bestseller and Alex Vitale, its author, a leading figure in the urgent public discussion over police and racial justice. As the writer Rachel Kushner put it in an article called "Things I Can't Live Without", this book explains that "unfortunately, no increased diversity on police forces, nor body cameras, nor better training, has made any seeming difference" in reducing police killings and abuse. "We need to restructure our society and put resources into communities themselves, an argument Alex Vitale makes very persuasively." The problem, Vitale demonstrates, is policing itself-the dramatic expansion of the police role over the last forty years. Drawing on first-hand research from across the globe, The End of Policing describes how the implementation of alternatives to policing, like drug legalization, regulation, and harm reduction instead of the policing of drugs, has led to reductions in crime, spending, and injustice. This edition includes a new introduction that takes stock of the renewed movement to challenge police impunity and shows how we move forward, evaluating protest, policy, and the political situation.

Crime, Deviance, and Social Control in the 21st Century

Crime, Deviance, and Social Control in the 21st Century
Author: Claudio Colaguori
Publisher: Canadian Scholars
Total Pages: 564
Release: 2023-03-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1773383337

Crime, Deviance, and Social Control in the 21st Century seeks to go beyond traditional criminology texts and handle the subject through a perspective focusing on power interest and social justice. Timely and accessibly written, the text provides a comprehensive overview of social and criminological theory, as well as recent trends in theorizing power and deviance. It also delves into the significant implications the committal and control of crime have for human rights. This text aims to answer the questions: “Who has the power to decide which acts are deviant?”; “Whose interests are being served by a given law?”; and “Which social groups are being disadvantaged when society has been constructed along such legally demarcated lines?” The contributors dissect the criminalization of dissent, the changing nature of what constitutes deviance, internet hate, self-harming, transgender identities, the growing rise of transnational criminal enterprises, internet fraud, and the increased public attention on police practices. With a Canadian focus placed in a global context, the text challenges readers to consider crime and deviance as socially structured phenomena, while recognizing that crime is a worldwide issue. Crime, Deviance, and Social Control in the 21st Century is a critical resource for undergraduate students in criminology, police services, and sociology. FEATURES: - Offers an accessible and comprehensive introductory overview of criminology theory - Employs a social justice approach to the fundamentals of criminology, deviance, law, and social control - Includes bolded key terms, a glossary, real-world case studies, and questions for critical thinking