Crime Control as Industry

by Nils Christie

This classic text argues that crime control, rather than crime itself is the real danger for our future. Since the second edition was published in 1994, prison populations , especially in Russia and America, have grown at an increasingly rapid rate. This third edition is published to take account of these changes and draw attention to the scale of an escalating problem. It contains completely new chapters - one on 'penal geography', the other on 'the Russian case' - and has been extensively revised.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sociology, Law, History, Politics

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Nils Christie was a Norwegian criminologist known for his criticism of penal incarceration and drug prohibition. Christie was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. He was also the president of the Scandinavian Council for Criminology and the director of the Institute for Criminology and Penal Law in Norway. Christie wrote about the massacre of prisoners from Yugoslavia in Norwegian concentration camps during WWII.

Reviews

[Jacquie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does an excellent job at detailing the growth of the prison system, including buildings, equipment, technology, and labor. But Christie stops short of explaining the mechanisms by which this expansion takes place. He implies that the over-reliance on wealth in industrialized countries is the major reason. While I personally believe this implication is in large part true, I wanted this book to explain to me WHY and HOW this assumption operates.

Also, I am immediately suspicious of any work on the modern prison system that does not dedicate a large part to the effects of prison on communities of color and the inner city (in this case he spends less than 2 pages on it!!!)

I am also missing ANY mention of the juvenile justice system

[Jim v H]

Iedereen met een mening over misdaad en straf, gevangenissen, politieke economie, of eigenlijk gewoon iedereen moet dit boek lezen. Wat een eye-opener, en wat een stof tot nadenken weer.

[Carolina Liblik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nils Christie is what I can only describe as one of the main criminologys of our century. Reading his book is like having someone putting in words everything I think and see in the Penal System.

His book may not be new, but it is definely actual, in the way that we see today the same problems he pointed out in 1990's.

[Nadia · Rating 5 out of 5]

O carte care ramane actuala atat timp cat persista incarcerarea in masa.

[Morthen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tämä vuonna 1993 julkaistu kirja on edelleenkin ajankohtainen ja monia ajatuksia herättävä.

Suosittelen.