Legal Plunder: The Predatory Dimensions of Criminal Justice

This event is part of the Crime, Justice and Society Seminar series.

Professor Joshua Page will discuss his recent book, Legal Plunder: Predatory Policing and Punishment in the United States, written with Professor Joe Soss, University of Minnesota.

Drawing on historical and contemporary evidence, including original ethnographic research, Joshua Page and Joe Soss examine the predatory dimensions of criminal legal governance to show how practices that criminalize, police, and punish have been retrofitted to siphon resources from subordinated groups, subsidize governments, and generate corporate profits. As tax burdens have declined for the affluent, this financial extraction—now a core function of the country’s sprawling criminal legal apparatus—further compounds race, class, and gender inequalities and injustices. Legal Plunder shows that we can no longer afford to overlook legal plunder or the efforts to dismantle it.