ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an explicit sense of how punishment operates in the United States since this is one of the ways attempt to control and decrease crime. Michael Tonry summarizes how distinctive U.S. criminal justice policy is among advanced Western countries: Only the United States retains and uses the death penalty. Equally significant in terms of understanding unfair effects of our criminal justice system on select populations is a consideration of the right to counsel. Overall, the crimes of the powerful are not pursued and punished with the consistency and zeal accorded street crime. The crimes of corporations may involve significant theft or even violence, but they are often ignored or bring only mild financial penalties in comparison to the harsh sentencing for the theft or violence of street criminals. The inequity in the punishment of crime is apparent when we analyze more closely the demographics of those who bear the most serious forms of punishment, including incarceration.
