Criminal Justice System: The Threat Of The Poor

The criminal justice system is not blind to the wealthy, in fact it favors them. The second rule of the Pyrrhic defeat theory states, “Failure to treat as crimes the harmful acts of the rich and powerful” (179) Rich people also commit crimes, yet the perception of a criminal is usually perceived as both a minority and poor. Rich people also commit crime, but they receive more of a slap on the wrist and second chances than less privileged classes. People in power who happen to be rich have the authority and influence to create a narrative of the threat of poor people to the masses. The consequences of the narrative of the threat of the poor creates a broken system where there become two courts, one for people with money, and one for those without. The significances become the creation of a perpetual cycle of legislature focusing not on getting people out of poverty to reduce the need for crime, but policy of making it easier for those in poverty to become criminals.

The third effect of the pyrrhic defeat stated in the book states,” The effect of the third failure is that the individuals who are arrested and convicted for crimes are predominantly poor people” (179). With the combination of relaxed nature of prosecuting rich people, and the predominant persecution of the poor, our criminal justice system is heavily broken. Poor people have a substantial great chance of being convicted of the same crime as someone who is rich, and their conviction is a group of people makes the system unfair. The broken system is subtle, but it is is there to define the poor not as a group of desperate people who want to improve their lives, but as future crimiminals who must be punished for the crimes they will