Celebrity privilege is a type of "Special treatment!" We know the latter phrase if we grew up with a sib or if nursery school or kindergarten teachers used it. Parents in the U.S. and early teachers drilled it into our heads—no special treatment, wait your turn, share toys with others. So, it's not surprising that Americans talk about privilege, discrimination, preferential treatment a lot. Preferential crim justice treatment for celebrity privilege? Celebs have long been ordered to … [Read more...]
Throw the book at certain rapists in this #meToo era.
Amber Rose Carlson wrote a piece about her rapist and his sentence for the New York Times recently. Besides dealing with rapists and sentencing, she covers many other timely topics in this #meToo era. Life without parole for rapists. These topics include injustice, male privilege, life without parole, and several others. I've blogged and written about many of them (for instance, in my forthcoming book, Four Murders and a Funeral). I include Ms. Carlson's piece here in its entirety. … [Read more...]
Rape, male privilege, sentencing, and punishment.
An essay about rape and male privilege that's been widely circulated lately got my attention for sure. Not because so many women have been Weinsteined by Harvey who had gatekeeping power or raped by everyday men who were intimidating. But because I've been addressing similar issues in a book I'm writing. Several of the real-life murderers in my memoir got away easy just as Amber Rose Carlson's rapist did. Amber Rose Carlson is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at Vanderbilt University who … [Read more...]
Prison life is hard. Outside can be harder. CSP revisited.
Prison life gone bad? I've known, and been a victim of, someone who recidivised. Recidivism refers to committing a crime after being "rehabilitated" in prison. When it comes to prison life, it's a big "No No." To victims, everyday taxpayers, ideologues supporting prison reform, and criminologists like me who study this sort of thing. Recidivism is a sign of corrections failing to "correct." A sign that prison life may've hindered more than helped an inmate. The story below is a … [Read more...]
Prison life 101: Help adjusting to life outside.
Despite America's current turn to the political right, there is still momentum in the US to reduce the number of inmates in prison—for financial as well as "fairness" reasons. That means a lot of inmates—mostly nonviolent offenders—will be soon confronting life outside cell bars and perimeter walls. They often falter making the adjustment from prison life to "freedom." We can expect a good deal of recidivism in the future in the US.. We're also entering a new era of Federalism where … [Read more...]
Prison rehabilitation: Turning zeroes into heroes?
A recent article about carcerite, “prison syndrome,” is especially interesting in that it gives insight into the prison system in Italy. While bedeviled with overcrowding, just like the US, Italy has some "inspired" prison rehabilitation programs that're worth knowing about.However, the main reason I'm posting today's blog is to make us aware of the gamut of thinking about "prison rehab." What do you think of the comments below in response to the "prison syndrome" article?Mary Phillips … [Read more...]
Oscar Pistorius’sentencing suggests he’s a psychopath.
Finally, the other shoe has dropped. And the judge has answered our question . . . sort of. The question asked several Pistorius blogs ago was, does Oscar have psychopathic tendencies like Lance Armstrong and OJ Simpson? Because I felt I knew less about Oscar than Lance and OJ and because a different culture and criminal justice system was at work, I decided to let the judge determine Oscar's mental state. Psychopath? By sentencing Oscar to five years—much less than the ten years she might … [Read more...]