Thinking In a Pandemic | Boston Review

A Political and Literary Forum

Menu Search
Donate Shop Join

Crime and prison

Law & Justice

A Jury of One’s Peers

Prosecutors use a system of “strikes” to engineer nearly all-white juries. Eliminating this system would not only make juries less racist, but also bring us closer to the original intent of the jury system.

Sonali Chakravarti

Law & Justice

College Behind Bars

One man’s struggle to earn a degree while incarcerated shows how far tough-on-crime policies go to prevent prisoners from having a second chance.

Shannon Ross

Arts in Society

Rap on Trial

Prosecutors use defendants’ rap lyrics to win cases despite the flimsiest evidence. Behind this rests a unique paranoia around hip hop and a long history of criminalizing black art. 

Erik Nielson, Andrea L. Dennis

Law & Justice

Halloween and Stranger Danger

Bizarre restrictions are levied against people on the sex offense registry on Halloween. But do they actually make children safer or simply reveal what we fear?

Christine Hume

War & Security

The Making of the American Gulag

During the Cold War, the “police apparatus” was held up as a prime example of Soviet repression. Yet in its efforts to fight subversives, the United States ended up with its own carceral state. 

Stuart Schrader

Law & Justice, Reading Lists

The Legality and Reality of Torture

Our best writing from our archives on why torture is not the same thing as interrogation.

Rosie Gillies, Boston Review

Law & Justice

The Metastasis of the Misdemeanor System

The misdemeanor system is four times the size of the felony system. With so many gradations of minor crimes—many involving fines in a very informal process—prejudice and inequality shapes prosecution.

Brandon L. Garrett

Law & Justice

How Cars Transformed Policing

Before the mass adoption of the car, most communities barely had a police force and citizens shared responsibility for enforcing laws. Then the car changed everything.

Sarah A. Seo

Reading Lists

The United States Doesn’t Have a Gun Problem

Our problem is that we keep producing killers.

Rosie Gillies, Boston Review

Reading Lists

The College Admissions Scam Is Not the Problem

It's not just celebrity moms — middle-class families are guilty too.

Rosie Gillies, Boston Review

Class & Inequality

Puerto Rico’s War on Its Poor

In the 1990s, Puerto Rico showed Washington how militarized policing and privatization can extract profits from poor people of color.

Marisol LeBrón

Law & Justice

Managing Innocence

The Innocence Movement faces a perverse rhetorical puzzle: righting the isolated wrongful conviction only reinforces public faith in the system as a whole.

Joseph Margulies

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Vital reading on politics, literature, and more in your inbox

Love Boston Review?

Then you’ll love our new membership program! Join us to support engaged discussion on critical issues. You’ll also enjoy exclusive membership benefits.
Get Started

Copyright © 1993-2020 Boston Review and its authors.

Support Boston Review

Become a Member

Make a tax-deductible donation today

Boston Review Printing Note: For best printing results try turning on any options your web browser's print dialog makes available for printing backgrounds and background graphics.