NCJ Number
75813
Journal
Insurgent Sociologist Volume: 7 Issue: 3 Dated: (Summer 1977) Pages: 62-69
Date Published
1977
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This article evaluates the work of Chiricos and Waldo who attempted to demonstrate that prison sentences are unrelated to class and race; the discussion emphasizes alleged flaws in reasoning and contends that criminal sentences are imposed primarily on members of the working class.
Abstract
The extent to which bourgeois criminology has become linked to ruling class ideology is evidenced by the way its activities lend increasing support to ruling class hegemony. A recent article by Chiricos and Waldo is a dramatic example of the degree of support the ruling class receives. The authors suggest that racism and class biases in the criminal justice system are rare and probably nonexistent. It is suggested herein that Chiricos and Waldo have greatly oversimplified the new criminology. In addition, they ignore the vast body of literature relative to criminal sentencing. They have made unsupported statements about the formulation of application of criminal sanctions and have neglected the extensive Marxist analysis of crime, which goes far beyond what they have termed conflict towards a political economy of crime. Another major conceptual error of the authors is their equation of criminal sanctioning with criminal sentencing. Most of the literature on who goes to prison is unequivocal in its assertion that there are too many nonwhites, and almost all of them come from the lower or working class sectors. Numerous studies confirm the fact that racism is an objective reality of the criminal justice system. U.S. prisons are filled with members of the working class with few exceptions. The article includes 76 footnotes and 63 references.