A revelatory account from the misdemeanor machine that unjustly brands an incredible number of People in america as criminals

Punishment Without Criminal offense provides an urgent new interpretation of inequality and injustice in America by examining the paradigmatic American offense: the lowly misdemeanor. Predicated on comprehensive original study, legal scholar Alexandra Natapoff reveals the inner workings of a massive petty offense program that creates over 13 million cases each year. People imprisoned for minor offences are swept about Abuse Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America Even more Unequal through courts where defendants frequently lack lawyers, judges process cases in mere a few minutes, and nearly everyone pleads guilty. This misdemeanor machine starts punishing people a long time before they may be convicted; it punishes the innocent; and it punishes conduct that never should have been a crime. Because of this, vast amounts of Us citizens — most of them poor and folks of color — are stigmatized as bad guys, impoverished through fines and costs, and stripped of motorists’ licenses, careers, and housing.

For too much time, misdemeanors have been ignored. But they are necessary to understanding our punitive criminal program and our widening economic and racial divides.

A Publishers Regular Best Publication of 2018