Outside The Law: Narratives on Justice in America [Paperback]

Susan Richards Shreve (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0807044075 | ISBN-13: 978-0807044070 | Publication Date: August 1, 1998

Seventeen original pieces of writing that use powerful storytelling to define justice, to give it a face, and to show how it affects the lives of every one of us.

Includes contributions from Julia Alvarez, Richard Bausch, Madison Smartt Bell, Blanche McCrary Boyd, John Casey, Michael Dorris, Garrett Hongo, Charles Johnson, Alex Kotlowitz, Beverly Lowry, Martha Minow, Clarence Page, Sarah Pettit, Ntozake Shange, Susan Richards Shreve, Gerald M. Stern, Daniel J. Wideman, and John Edgar Wideman.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The editors, mother and son, have brought together an assortment of intriguing and insightful essays written by individuals from different walks of life who share experiences with the criminal justice system that are more criminal than just. The thread linking these stories is that true justice is highly subjective and that our legal system attempts to approach it through objectivity and litigiousness. The result is a highly impersonal, paternalistic system that frequently smacks of condescension and chaos. Strict adherence to the rule of law can result in a form of justice skewed to the point where the innocent go to prison, individuals are convicted on the basis of guilt by association, or a jury is swayed more by the desire to emancipate its children from daycare by an afternoon deadline than to save a human soul. Useful reading for students of the psychosociological aspects of our criminal justice system.?Phillip Young Blue, New York State Supreme Court Criminal Branch Lib., New York
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

For this excellent collection of essays and stories, the editors asked several writers to examine the idea of justice. The results are startling: the essay by Blanche McCrary Boyd about Susan Smith (the woman who killed her two children in a failed suicide attempt, then claimed they had been kidnapped by a black man); Clarence Page's examination of the O. J. Simpson jury; Charles Johnson's short story about affirmative action; to Alex Kotlowitz's heartbreaking tale of the two boys in Chicago, aged 10 and 12, who were recently sentenced to prison for dropping their five-year-old neighbor to his death from the fourteenth-floor window of their public-housing high-rise. Some of the pieces are notable for their anguished personal tone, others for their thoughtful examination, poignancy, or objectivity. This carefully edited examination of justice is both a satisfying and an eye-opening read. Kathleen Hughes --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807044075
• ISBN-13: 978-0807044070
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #927,798 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)