Privilege and punishment: how race and class matter in criminal court
Description
How the attorney-client relationship favors the privileged in criminal court—and denies justice to the poor and to working-class people of colorThe number of Americans arrested, brought to court, and incarcerated has skyrocketed in recent decades. Criminal defendants come from all races and economic walks of life, but they experience punishment in vastly different ways. Privilege and Punishment examines how racial and class inequalities are embedded in the attorney-client relationship, providing a devastating portrait of inequality and injustice within and beyond the criminal courts.Matthew Clair conducted extensive fieldwork in the Boston court system, attending criminal hearings and interviewing defendants, lawyers, judges, police officers, and probation officers. In this eye-opening book, he uncovers how privilege and inequality play out in criminal court interactions. When disadvantaged defendants try to learn their legal rights and advocate for themselves, lawyers and judges often silence, coerce, and punish them. Privileged defendants, who are more likely to trust their defense attorneys, delegate authority to their lawyers, defer to judges, and are rewarded for their compliance. Clair shows how attempts to exercise legal rights often backfire on the poor and on working-class people of color, and how effective legal representation alone is no guarantee of justice.Superbly written and powerfully argued, Privilege and Punishment draws needed attention to the injustices that are perpetuated by the attorney-client relationship in today’s criminal courts, and describes the reforms needed to correct them.
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Library Journal Review
Clair (sociology, Stanford Univ.) argues that economically disadvantaged people of color face an especially heavy burden when navigating the criminal justice system. Through interviews with defendants, judges, police officers, attorneys, and probation officers and by attending criminal hearings in Boston, the author learned about ways in which the scales are tipped in favor of prosecutors and the courts and considers the role of privilege in criminal proceedings. While initially Clair assumed that impoverished defendants generally listen to counsel and privileged people are prone to asserting their rights, he found the opposite: Working-class people of color are eager to advocate for themselves but are more likely to be punished or coerced by their legal representation for doing so, whereas those with privilege tend to rely on the expertise of their attorney and are rewarded for compliance. The cases brought into focus as a result of Clair's fieldwork shed light on many institutional and societal failures that have resulted in an unequal, punishing system for disadvantaged defendants. VERDICT A well-researched, eye-opening study that will appeal to readers of criminal justice and sociology.--Mattie Cook, Flat River Community Lib., MI
Library Journal Reviews
Clair (sociology, Stanford Univ.) argues that economically disadvantaged people of color face an especially heavy burden when navigating the criminal justice system. Through interviews with defendants, judges, police officers, attorneys, and probation officers and by attending criminal hearings in Boston, the author learned about ways in which the scales are tipped in favor of prosecutors and the courts and considers the role of privilege in criminal proceedings. While initially Clair assumed that impoverished defendants generally listen to counsel and privileged people are prone to asserting their rights, he found the opposite: Working-class people of color are eager to advocate for themselves but are more likely to be punished or coerced by their legal representation for doing so, whereas those with privilege tend to rely on the expertise of their attorney and are rewarded for compliance. The cases brought into focus as a result of Clair's fieldwork shed light on many institutional and societal failures that have resulted in an unequal, punishing system for disadvantaged defendants. VERDICT A well-researched, eye-opening study that will appeal to readers of criminal justice and sociology.—Mattie Cook, Flat River Community Lib., MI
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