The U.S. crime rate has dropped steadily for more than a decade, yet the rate of incarceration continues to skyrocket. Today, more than 2 million Americans are locked in prisons and jails with devastating consequences for poor families and communities, overcrowded institutions and overburdened taxpayers. How did the U.S. become the world's leader in incarceration? Why have the numbers of women, juveniles, and people of color increased especially rapidly among the imprisoned?The Politics of Injustice: Crime and Punishment in America, Second Edition is the first book to make widely accessible the new research on crime as a political and cultural issue. Katherine Beckett and Theodore Sasson provide readers with a robust analysis of the roles of crime, politics, media imagery and citizen activism in the making of criminal justice policy in the age of mass incarceration.is the first book to make widely accessible the new research on crime as a political and cultural issue. Katherine Beckett and Theodore Sasson provide readers with a robust analysis of the roles of crime, politics, media imagery and citizen activism in the making of criminal justice policy in the age of mass incarceration.

Preface AcknowledgmentsChapter 1. Criminal Justice Expansion Explaining the Expansion of the Penal System Outline of the BookChapter 2. Crime in the United States Crime in Historical Perspective Crime in Comparative Perspective ConclusionChapter 3. Murder, American Style Popular Explanations of Violence Guns Inequality and Homicide ConclusionChapter 4. The Politics of Crime The Origins of the Discourse of Law and Order From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime From the War on Crime to the War on Drugs ConclusionChapter 5. Crime in the Media Crime in the News Crime as Entertainment The Police Drama The Crime Film The "Reality-Based" Cop Show Media Imagery and Public Opinion ConclusionChapter 6. Crime and Public Opinion Fear of Crime Crime as a Social Problem Popular Punitiveness Understanding Popular Punitiveness Alternatives to Punitiveness Minority Dissent ConclusionChapter 7. Activism and the Politics of Crime Community-Based Crime Prevention Efforts The Victim Rights Movement Adverasarial Activism: Human Rights Campaigns Against Police Brutality, Capital Punishment, and the War on Drugs Conclusion Chapter 8. Crime and Public Policy Drug Policing Punitive Sentencing Return of Capital Punishment Retreat From Juvenile Justice Prisoner Warehousing The Surveillance Society Criminal Justice and Democracy Conclusion Chapter 9. Alternatives Social Investment Harm Reduction Alternative Sentencing Rehabilitating Reintegration Toward Disarmament Community Policing Conclusion Notes ReferencesIndex