Subjects:  1. Current Affairs    2. Law    3. Military & War    4. Politics/International Relations   

Editorial Review

The American criminal-justice system, writes Georgetown law professor David Cole, has effectively become a two-tiered system, with differing levels of regard depending on the race or class of a given citizen who comes into contact with it. The thousands of African Americans who have been confronted by law-enforcement agents nationwide for "fitting the description" of alleged perpetrators would likely concur, but, according to Cole, it isn't just the cops that operate this way; judges, prosecutors, juries, and legislators are equally complicit. If the barrage of illustrative cases he presents in Read more

Reviews (4)

Make time for this book.
This is a book that needs to be read both by those who are interested in the relations between races in this country and those who think they are not.It is a scholarly but easily readable and compelling description ofthe insidious effects of race in the administration of criminal justice inthis country.

Important stuff -- and a good read.
Poor people and people of color suffer systematic injustice and harrassment at the hands of the criminal justice system. David Cole articulates the ways in which each injustice compounds the effect of thenext -- from police brutality and racial profiling on the streets to juryselection and racist application of the death penalty. Unlike the averagelegal scholar, he writes with a style that is accessible and compelling.

Great thesis, very poorly written
When I read the review of this book in the New York Times Book Review, reprinted in the Chicago Law Bulletin (I am an attorney), I ran to several bookstores to find it. Almost at once I was disappointed at the sophomoric analysis and use of sources such as Newsweek and the New York Times. DavidCole is pretty much dead on in the premise of each of his chapters, thoughI agree with the other reader that he may place too much blame on theSupreme Court. What is truely dissapointing is the shallowness andone-sidedness of his arguments along with his use of unreliable sources ofinformation. The writing seems to me to be on the level of a collegestudent, not a Georgetown University law professor. Which is verydisappointing, because what he is saying needs to be said. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Administration of criminal jus    2. Criminal Law    3. Criminal justice, Administrati    4. Criminal justice, Administration of    5. Current Affairs    6. Discrimination & Racism    7. Discrimination in criminal jus    8. Discrimination in criminal justice administration    9. Law    10. Legal System    11. Politics - Current Events    12. Politics / Current Events    13. Race And Ethnic Relations    14. Race discrimination    15. Social Classes    16. United States   

Subjects:  1. American    2. Law    3. Politics/International Relations    4. U.S. - Contemporary Politics    5. U.S. President   

Subjects:  1. Current Affairs    2. Europe - Ireland    3. Government - Comparative    4. Law    5. Legal Reference / Law Profession    6. Legal System    7. Politics/International Relations    8. English Law    9. Ireland    10. Laws of Other Jurisdictions & General Law