Our Punitive Society: Race, Class, Gender and Punishment in America
"For almost 40 years, Randall Shelden has been known for his ground-breaking work in juvenile delinquency, gangs, and the history of American criminal justice. Two of the finest additions to the literature are his Delinquency and Juvenile Justice in American Society (2006) and Controlling the Dangerous Classes (2008). In this new text, Shelden has done it again by providing an interpretative overview for a number of disturbing trends in American justice. For the United States of America to sustain a Gulag system which has historical overtones to slavery is indeed a very serious indictment of neo-liberal, criminal justice policies. Luckily for us all, Shelden provides a way out of this failed legacy. This is a superb overview of the issues facing all Americans, and an equally cogent explanation for the historical patterns."
Prof. Matthew G. Yeager, King’s University College, University of Western Ontario
“This book challenges conventional wisdom about crime and punishment in the United States. Tracing the origins of the rise in penal sanctioning to slavery and poor houses, Shelden not only identifies macroeconomic forces as relevant to imprisonment—he connects them directly. Poverty and political powerlessness remain strong predictors of incarceration. Only when we confront these realities will we achieve a viable and humane alternative to our current incarceration binge. I will use this book as required reading.”
Michael Hallett, Professor and Chair, Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice, University of North Florida
Controlling The
Dangerous Classes (2nd edition)
"Shelden's penetrating and highly informative study unravels the
historical roots of contemporary criminal justice systems and places
them in the context of measures to sustain hierarchies of class,
gender and race."
Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor, MIT
