Crime, Inequality and Power

Eileen Leonard

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317590194
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

Crime, Inequality and Power challenges the dominant definitions of crime and the criminal through its uniquely comparative approach. In this book Eileen Leonard analyzes multiple forms of criminal behavior in the United States, including violence, sexual assault, theft, and drug law violations, whilst also asking readers to consider the parallels between crimes that are rarely thought comparable. Leonard's juxtaposition of familiar street crimes, such as car theft, alongside large-scale corporate theft, vividly exposes profound inequalities in the way crime is defined, and the treatment it receives within the criminal justice system.

Leonard's analysis also reveals the underlying inequalities of race, class, and gender which enable the perpetuation of such crimes, as well as calling into question the reality of fundamental American ideals of fairness and equal justice. Moreover, the book questions whether current policies that punish street crime excessively while minimizing the crimes of the powerful, fail to keep the public safe. A broader consideration of crime, and the inequalities that underlie it, offers a fresh opportunity to rethink public policies and enduring issues of crime and criminal justice.

Challenging the many persistent inequalities in the perception of and response to crime, this critique of American crime and punishment will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as scholars, in the fields of criminology, sociology and law.

CRIME, INEQUALITY, AND POWER

Crime, Inequality, and Power challenges the dominant definitions of crime and the criminal through its uniquely comparative approach. In this book Eileen Leonard analyzes multiple forms of criminal behavior in the United States, including violence, sexual assault, theft, and drug law violations, while also asking readers to consider the parallels between crimes that are rarely thought comparable. Leonard’s juxtaposition of familiar street crimes, such as car theft, alongside large-scale corporate theft, vividly exposes profound inequalities in the way crime is defined, and the treatment it receives within the criminal justice system.

Leonard’s analysis also reveals the underlying inequalities of race, class, and gender which enable the perpetuation of such crimes, as well as calling into question the reality of fundamental American ideals of fairness and equal justice. Moreover, the book questions whether current policies that punish street crime excessively while minimizing the crimes of the powerful, fail to keep the public safe. A broader consideration of crime, and the inequalities that underlie it, offers a fresh opportunity to rethink public policies and enduring issues of crime and criminal justice.

Challenging the many persistent inequalities in the perception of and response to crime, this critique of American crime and punishment will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as scholars, in the fields of criminology, sociology, and law.

Eileen B. Leonard is Professor of Sociology at Vassar College, and she teaches a yearly course at Taconic Correctional Facility for Women. Her teaching and research focus on crime, gender, inequality, and social theory. Leonard has chaired the Sociology Department at Vassar College and has been Director of the Women’s Studies Program and the American Studies Program. She is currently Director of Faculty Teaching Development at Vassar.

Crime, Inequality, and Power

 

Eileen B. Leonard

First published 2015

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2015 Eileen B. Leonard

The right of Eileen B. Leonard to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Leonard, Eileen B.

Crime, inequality and power / Eileen B. Leonard. — First Edition.

pages cm

1. Crime. 2. Marginality, Social. 3. Discrimination in criminal justice administration. I. Title.

HV6025.L446 2015

364—dc23 2014036438

ISBN: 978-1-138-82056-2 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-82056-2 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-74379-0 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781315743790

Typeset in Bembo

by CodeMantra

For my brother, Tom,

who raises houses out of floodwaters;

and my sister, Jeanne,

who brings those houses together

Contents

1. List of figures
2. List of tables
3. Acknowledgments
4. Introduction
5. 1 The Social Construction of Crime
6. 2 Murder and Assault: Comparing Street Crime and Elite Crime
7. 3 Rape and Sexual Assault: Perpetrators as Strangers or Significant Others
8. 4 Theft By the Rich and Poor
9. 5 Drug Law Violations: From Street Corners to Pharmaceutical Headquarters
10. 6 State Crime: Crimes against the State and Crimes by the State
11. 7 Punishing Crime
12. 8 Social Change: Public Policies for a Safer Society
13. Bibliography
14. Index

Figures

• 0.1 United States is the World’s Leading Jailer
• 0.2 Incarcerated Americans, 1920–2008
• 2.1 Murder by Relationship, 2010
• 4.1 Distribution of Larceny-Theft, 2010
• 5.1 U.S. Illicit Drug Users vs. Drug War Prisoners by Race, 2001
• 5.2 Drug Sellers by Race, 2004
• 7.1 Changes in State Spending, 1985–2004
• 7.2 U.S. Prison Population by Race, 2008
• 7.3 Women in State and Federal Prisons, 1994–2008