Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Unfair by Adam Benforado



This book is thouroughly researched and detailed critiqe of the criminal justice system. The author is an associate law professor at Drexel University. He is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School. Then he served as a federal appellate law clerk and a lawyer at Jenner & Block. He has published many scholarly articles. His op-eds and essays have appeared in various publications, which include the WASHINGTON POST, THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, and LEGAL TIMES. He begins this book with a 12-page introduction that sets the tone for this book. This book, divided into four parts, consists of twelve chapters. He ends the text with acknowledgments and a brief note on the sources he sites. Then he ends with an exhaustive bibliography of the many, many sources he used for this book. UNFAIR is concluded with the index.

I know when I saw the book that I was in for an intense and involved reading experience. And I was right. Months ago, I had reviewed a book, something like this, that analyzed what causes people to commit crimes. The author of UNFAIR analyzes crime from a sociologcal perspective, and I found myself agreeing with many of his conclusions about the fundamental unfairness of the criminal justice system. I have to concede that each of us, as he argues, have implicit biases and because juries, judges, lawyers and witnesses come from us, we should not be surprised that our system is basically unfair. This book was not light or entertaining reading but it many of his arguments about the unfairness of our criminal justice system, are many things I have agreed about for years. He offers explanations (not excuses) for how and why judges and juries are responsible for wrongful convictions as well as wrongful acquittals. As I have always suspected, the author asserts the reasons for these travesties of justice can be causes simply by what the defendant looks like and how much money they have. It is no surprise to me that low-income, low-intelligence, and minority people care convicted for more often than more privileged defendants and usually get harsher sentences. And when they are victims, they often don't get justice and their perpetrators often are not held accountable or get light sentences. The racially charged cases of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown illustrate this. I have never heard of his proposal of virtual trials. While his arguments for them make sense, I'm not sure that this will ever happen or how cost-effective it would be. But clearly, we need to make changes.

I strongly recommend this book for every law student and for every judge, lawyer, and all who work in the criminal justice system. It should be required reading in all law schools. I recommend this book for all those who feel that they have been treated unjustly by the criminal justice system, if they do not mind the in-dpth, cerebral style. It will give them insight as to why and how the system often does not work according to justice. People who believe that prison inmates "had it coming to them" and that prisons should be cold, sterile places of punishment, will not like this book. They will believe that this author wants to "coddle criminals" by blaming their actions on their circumstances. As this is an in-depth, scholarly work, I do not recommend it to anyone who prefers light, entertaining reading.

I have received a complimentary copy of this book through Blogging For Books, in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to give a positive review of this book.

More Info

Author Bio

No comments: