Overview

How the attorney-client relationship favors the privileged in criminal court-and denies justice to the poor and to working-class people of colorThe number of Americans arrested, brought to court, and incarcerated has skyrocketed in recent decades. Criminal defendants come from all races and economic walks of life, but they experience punishment in vastly different ways. Privilege and Punishment examines how racial and class inequalities are embedded in the attorney-client relationship, providing a devastating portrait of inequality and injustice within and beyond the criminal courts.Matthew Clair conducted extensive fieldwork in the Boston court system, attending criminal hearings and interviewing defendants, lawyers, judges, police officers, and probation officers. In this eye-opening book, he uncovers how privilege and inequality play out in criminal court interactions. When disadvantaged defendants try to learn their legal rights and advocate for themselves, lawyers and judges often silence, coerce, and punish them. Privileged defendants, who are more likely to trust their defense attorneys, delegate authority to their lawyers, defer to judges, and are rewarded for their compliance. Clair shows how attempts to exercise legal rights often backfire on the poor and on working-class people of color, and how effective legal representation alone is no guarantee of justice.Superbly written and powerfully argued, Privilege and Punishment draws needed attention to the injustices that are perpetuated by the attorney-client relationship in today's criminal courts, and describes the reforms needed to correct them.

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9780691194332

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Reviews

Privilege and Punishment is worth reading to the end. * Science * Matthew Clair has written a timely and salient book that describes in intricate detail how the attorney-client relationship between lawyer and defendant reproduces race- and class-based disparities in a criminal court. * The Journal of Criminal Justice and Law * A careful study of what [Clair] argues is an overlooked cause of inequity in the criminal justice system: the unexpectedly combative relationship between defendants and their lawyers. * Harper's Magazine *

Finalist for the C. Wright Mills Award, Society for the Study of Social Problems A careful study of what [Clair] argues is an overlooked cause of inequity in the criminal justice system: the unexpectedly combative relationship between defendants and their lawyers. * Harper's Magazine * Privilege and Punishment is worth reading to the end. * Science * Matthew Clair has written a timely and salient book that describes in intricate detail how the attorney-client relationship between lawyer and defendant reproduces race- and class-based disparities in a criminal court. * The Journal of Criminal Justice and Law * [Clair's] study is important. * Christian Century *

A careful study of what [Clair] argues is an overlooked cause of inequity in the criminal justice system: the unexpectedly combative relationship between defendants and their lawyers. * Harper's Magazine * Matthew Clair has written a timely and salient book that describes in intricate detail how the attorney-client relationship between lawyer and defendant reproduces race- and class-based disparities in a criminal court. * The Journal of Criminal Justice and Law * Privilege and Punishment is worth reading to the end. * Science *

Winner of the Outstanding Book Award, Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Section of the American Sociological Association Winner of the Edwin H. Sutherland Book Award, Law and Society Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems Matthew Clair, Co-Winner of the Michael Harrington Award, Poverty, Class, and Inequality Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems Winner of a Gold Medal in Current Events, Independent Publisher Book Awards Co-Winner of the Max Weber Book Award, Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section of the American Sociological Association Co-Winner of the Oliver Cromwell Cox Book Award, Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities of the American Sociological Association Co-Winner of the Albert J. Reiss Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award, Crime, Law, and Deviance Section of the American Sociological Association Honorable Mention for the Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award, Race, Gender, and Class Section of the American Sociological Association Finalist for the C. Wright Mills Award, Society for the Study of Social Problems A careful study of what [Clair] argues is an overlooked cause of inequity in the criminal justice system: the unexpectedly combative relationship between defendants and their lawyers. * Harper's Magazine * Privilege and Punishment is worth reading to the end. * Science * Matthew Clair has written a timely and salient book that describes in intricate detail how the attorney-client relationship between lawyer and defendant reproduces race- and class-based disparities in a criminal court. * The Journal of Criminal Justice and Law * [Clair's] study is important. * Christian Century *

A careful study of what [Clair] argues is an overlooked cause of inequity in the criminal justice system: the unexpectedly combative relationship between defendants and their lawyers. * Harper's Magazine *

Privilege and Punishment is worth reading to the end. * Science * A careful study of what [Clair] argues is an overlooked cause of inequity in the criminal justice system: the unexpectedly combative relationship between defendants and their lawyers. * Harper's Magazine *

Author Information

Matthew Clair is assistant professor of sociology at Stanford University, where he holds a courtesy appointment at Stanford Law School. He lives in Palo Alto, California. Twitter @mathuclair

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