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It's All The Rage: Crime And Culture
"A good book about crime to throw at people who clamor to throw the book at criminals."
-- The Detroit News
From our decrying of ”the abuse excuse” to our cheers of "Free the Juice,” our reactions to violent crime fluctuate wildly. Expanding on her well-known ideas about self-help and the American psyche, Wendy Kaminer shows us how pop-psychology and religious fervor vie with law and rationality in our courtrooms and in our minds. She doesn’t offer up any easy solutions; rather, with her trademark epigrammatic brilliance, she gives us an alarming picture of the emotional needs and cultural forces behind our righteous proclamations about crime and punishment.
"Wendy Kaminer takes the covers off America's radically biased judicial system and exposes a culture with a love-hate relationship with violence. And she takes no prisoners."
-- The Philadelphia Tribune
-- The Detroit News
From our decrying of ”the abuse excuse” to our cheers of "Free the Juice,” our reactions to violent crime fluctuate wildly. Expanding on her well-known ideas about self-help and the American psyche, Wendy Kaminer shows us how pop-psychology and religious fervor vie with law and rationality in our courtrooms and in our minds. She doesn’t offer up any easy solutions; rather, with her trademark epigrammatic brilliance, she gives us an alarming picture of the emotional needs and cultural forces behind our righteous proclamations about crime and punishment.
"Wendy Kaminer takes the covers off America's radically biased judicial system and exposes a culture with a love-hate relationship with violence. And she takes no prisoners."
-- The Philadelphia Tribune
- GenresNonfiction
302 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 23, 2015
I read this book back in 2000. Very well written and well researched. I was reminded of it today. You might not agree with her conclusions but you should value her questions. She made me think and then think again. It is at least as relevant today (2015) as it was when I read it.
September 29, 2015
This book should have 5-stars, what is there is worth that. However, it was cut short, and just ends with the promise of more. Which to my knowledge the author never followed up with. Written during the OJ trial 24/7 coverage, and full of so many great thoughts/critiques on our society as a whole, and how policy is made.
A life-long opponent of the death-penalty it really helped to inform so many of my beliefs, coupled with a broadening of the sociological and philosophical currents, it really left me energized.
Examining pop-culture and policy, political opportunism, and society's need for vengeance with aplomb. I needed more, much more. If you want the abolition of the death penalty this is your book.
A life-long opponent of the death-penalty it really helped to inform so many of my beliefs, coupled with a broadening of the sociological and philosophical currents, it really left me energized.
Examining pop-culture and policy, political opportunism, and society's need for vengeance with aplomb. I needed more, much more. If you want the abolition of the death penalty this is your book.
March 11, 2018
Kaminer is a great thinker and writer. This book was published in 1995 but still has a lot to say about current criminal justice debates.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews