To Punish and Protect: A DA's Fight Against a System That Coddles Criminals

by Jeanine Pirro, Catherine Whitney

"The office of the district attorney is a battleground, where the fight between good and evil unfolds each day. We see the ugliest side of life, the pain that people go through for no reason. They didn't do anything. They didn't ask for it. Yet here they are, living their personal nightmares. We cannot take away their pain, or turn back time to undo the damage, but we can be the avengers. We can seek justice on their behalf."

So begins this riveting account by Westchester County District Attorney, Jeanine Pirro, as she takes us inside the violent world of modern crime fighting. Before Pirro was elected DA in 1993, the job was always considered a man's domain, demanding a macho toughness. Pirro can be as tough as any man, and yet she adds an important new dimension to the role. She believes that being tough on crime means much more than just filling the jails. She goes beyond her role to punish criminals, to be a passionate advocate for the victims of crime.

In To Punish and Protect , Pirro brings readers face to face with the gruesome realities of her daily battles, and tells the true, heartbreaking stories of the victims - the slaughter of a young woman and her two children by a jealous, enraged boyfriend; a teenage girl forced to assume wifely duties after her father murdered her stepmother; a nine-year-old boy chained to a radiator in a dark room and nearly starved to death, as the rest of the family went about its business; a gentle, hardworking man shot fatally in a dispute over a parking place, because he was black; an eighty-year-old woman, savagely beaten by her son and left for two days on the cold floor of her apartment; a beautiful woman whose wealth and privilege could not prevent her murder at the hands of a violent husband; and a group of young girls lured into a sexual nightmare by a cunning predator posing as a trustworthy youth counselor.

Pirro presents hard truths about the ways in which parents, communities, and the justice system share complicity in fostering an environment of danger to our children. She describes the dark world of Internet pedophiles and hate mongers, who are allowed to hide behind First Amendment protections to gain access to kids in their own bedrooms. She offers a harsh judgment on parents who fail to address the deadly consequences of teen drinking, and even host keg parties in their homes, while alcohol continues to take young lives and destroy families.

Pirro delivers a bold indictment of the criminal justice system, and asks whether we as a nation are truly committed to justice. Increasingly, she warns, our laws, attitudes, and behaviors seem to be veering away from what we say is our moral core as a nation. We say that we exalt good and punish evil, yet we do the opposite. We turn criminals into celebrities, and view victims with suspicion. If we're going to make our communities safer and our society less violent, we need to do more than just pay lip service to our ideals. To Punish and Protect challenges us to have the will and the courage to wage war on the predators roaming our streets, and to avenge their victims.

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2003

About the author

Jeanine Ferris Pirro is a former prosecutor, judge, and elected official from the state of New York, who is currently a legal analyst and television personality. A Republican from Westchester County, Pirro served as a county court judge before serving as the elected District Attorney of Westchester County for 12 years. As a district attorney she gained considerable visibility, especially in cases regarding domestic abuse and crimes against the elderly. She was the first female judge on the Westchester County Court bench.

Pirro was the Republican nominee for New York State Attorney General in 2006, losing to Democrat Andrew Cuomo (a fellow Albany Law alumnus). She also held the nominations of the New York Conservative and Independence Parties. She previously sought the nominations of her party for the offices of New York State Lieutenant Governor and United States Senator and withdrew her name in each case. She was a regular contributor to The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet. She is currently contributing to Today, Fox NY and Good Day, New York,, and is a Fox News legal analyst appearing on various shows. She has guest hosted shows such as Larry King Live, The Joy Behar Show and Geraldo at Large. She is a frequent guest on Fox's late-night satire show Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld, and also currently hosts a television program entitled Judge Jeanine Pirro. In May 2010, the show received its first Emmy nomination. Pirro is also the host of Fox News Channel's Justice with Judge Jeanine which premiered in January 2011.

Reviews

[Zoe Xiuha · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is full of complete nonsense. Not only is it full of legally conclusory statements that would never hold up in court ("If there was one thing I knew about seniors, it was that they could read people."), it's also replete with blatant hypocrisy. Pirro claims we live in a "system of laws, not a system of excuses," but spends half the book complaining that our laws are wrong or shouldn't be followed as written. She devotes pages to sympathy for the toll that experiencing violent crime and trauma at a young age can have on people growing up, then argues defendants should be sentenced to death with no regard for the "excuse" of their past. She prides herself on making guilty determinations before trial and refusing to accept evidence to the contrary. While the book is of course comprised of extremely sympathetic anecdotes, Pirro makes no mention of how her 'guilty and I refuse to believe otherwise' mentality plays out in reality.

[J · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read more than half, and find it melodramatic and trying. I usually like to read case studies, but I found myself rolling my eyes alot while reading. So, I adandoned the effort.

[Beth Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

I prosecuted physical and sexual child abuse cases for years and happily sent many abusers to prison. The District Attorney I worked for was a highly moral, wise, and empathetic person and I was lucky to be learning from an experienced and talented lawyer. As a result of my experience, this book was painful to read. Pirro appears to be driven entirely by her emotions and gut feelings. Years of research shows how dangerous this mindset is for prosecutors and law enforcement officers. It’s the main reason innocent people spend years in prison. Many of Pirro’s philosophical legal theories have been disproved for decades yet she seems proud of her determination to hang on to them as proof that she’s tough on crime. People like this are detrimental to a fair criminal justice system and this book is appalling.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a prosecutor, there were SO many times when I found myself grabbing for a pen to highlight a passage from this book, thinking to myself “YES, been there, saaaaame!” This book highlighted so many of the issues in the criminal justice system and addressed so many daily frustrations of a prosecutor fighting for victims and having to tiptoe around defendants. Definitely keeping this one on the shelf.

[Maddy Ellis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Only read for entertaining nonsense and it lived up.

[chasey · Rating 4 out of 5]

well informed on domestic violence and child porn.