Reiman - "The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison"

Pyrrhic Defeat Theory

The idea that the criminal justice system's failure actually benefits the ruling elite. The ruling class wins by losing the war on crime (pyrrhic VICTORY)

Reiman's Triple Failure

1) Failure to implement effective crime reduction

2) Failure to criminalize harms by the rich

3) Failure to eliminate economic bias

Why isn't it a conspiracy?

- Too many people are involved to keep it a secret

- Impossible to prove

- Operates through systemic self-interest

- Human nature: villains don't see what they're doing as evil

Historical inertia

People who are affected by these issues are not in power, and those in power are not affected

Economic component of law

The legal system is structured to protect elite interests and keep the rich wealthy.

Ideological component of law

Law promotes false consciousness, preventing people from recognizing their true class interests (prevents social solidarity).

- Set up to create a narrative that preserves there ruling elite

- Law is filled with propaganda designed to hide how the whole system is rigged

Prison Industrial Complex

The privatization of prisons, creating a monetary incentive to keep crime rates high.

- Rehabilitation programs are cut to save $$

- Make a profit through labor; hire cheap labor and get rid of unionized employees

False consciousness

You think you can make a difference, but you can't

Three core issues

1) Monetary incentives to keep crime high

2) Inmates are treated as commodities, not humans

3) Labor issue; de-professionalizes & endangers workforce

What are the central components of Marx's definition of law?

Law is distilled out of the economic order which gives rise to it & is an institutionalized form of the prevailing ideology

Richard Quinney's Social Reality of Crime

The system is elite-driven, selectively enforcing laws against the poor while ignoring the rich.

1) Elites make the laws to selectively favor their interests

2) Elites use police to selectively enforce laws against the poor

3) The disorganizing & stigmatizing oppression of the state fosters crime in poor communities

4) The popular ideology of crime suggests that the middle class should fear the poor & ignore the rich

Labeling Theory

The idea that the labeling process creates disorganization and crime. Elites selectively enforce laws: more policing in poor communities.

Welfare as Superficial Help

Minimal assistance given to the poor to hide the fact that the system won't truly change.

Economic Approach to Crime

- The law exists to make the rich richer

- Private prisons - rich get richer BECAUSE the poor get prison

- Selective interpretation of the law (affects the poor more)

Ideological Approach to Crime

- The law is filled with propaganda that hides the laws of the CJ system & elitist interests

- Lack of concern about white collar crime

- The system repeatedly fails to reduce crime (not set up to reduce crime)

- Can frame anything as targeting the poor

- Not falsifiable or tautological (can't be proved wrong & a good theory can be)