Big Prisons, Big Dreams: Crime and the Failure of America's Penal System

by Michael J. Lynch and Professor Michael Lynch

Book Overview

The American prison system has grown tenfold since the 1970s, but crime rates in the United States have not decreased. This doesn't surprise Michael J. Lynch, a critical criminologist, who argues that our oversized prison system is a product of our consumer culture, the public's inaccurate beliefs about controlling crime, and the government's criminalizing of the poor. While deterrence and incapacitation theories suggest that imprisoning more criminals...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813541859
• ISBN13: 9780813541853
• Release Date: August 2007
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 257 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.4" x 9.1"