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Product Description
Now in paperback, a devastating critique of race- and class-based inconsistencies in the American criminal justice system. In a hard-hitting study hailed by Publishers Weekly as "well-argued" and "passionate," leading constitutional scholar David Cole reveals that, despite a veneer of neutrality, race- and class-based double standards operate in virtually every criminal justice setting, from police behavior, to jury selection, to sentencing. These double standards allow the privileged to enjoy constitutional protections from police power without paying the costs associated with extending those protections across the board to minorities and the poor. But they also inflict even greater costs on society, by compromising the legitimacy of the criminal justice system, and by exacerbating racial divisions nationally. No Equal Justice offers specic suggestions for moving beyond the inconsistencies we have tolerated, and concludes with a powerful argument for rebuilding the sense of community that is so essential to a safe and healthy society.
Amazon.com 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 No Equal Justice paints a picture of an antidemocratic society, his proposed solution--making the criminal-justice system more "community-based," strengthening the relationships between citizens to "stop" crime before it starts--holds out a promise of equality. Critics may argue that such a plan is unrealistic, but the problems he describes are all too real, and deserve the attention No Equal Justice provides.
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