Short Summary: Chapter 2 of The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison was about how the way society sees crime can be distorted by the media, the justice system, and the information we are presented with about what crime really is. It points out that medical neglect, known environmental hazards, dangerous workplace conditions, and poverty cause more injuries yearly than murders, assaults, and robberies. Most people see the latter as “crime,” but not the former. Long Summary: Chapter 2 of The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison discusses people’s skewed perspective when it comes to what they think crime really is. The reader is asked to do an exercise regarding their own reason. Think of a crime, any crime, the text asks you. Most people don’t imagine a corporation ignoring safety protocol, a town knowingly allowing its residents to drink lead-contaminated water, a doctor doing an unnecessary operation, or the wealthy ignoring the poor’s needs. …show more content…
When a corporation ignores safety protocol and a building fire kills its employees as a result, we don’t call that murder. Yet, all of those scenarios result in death. The people committing these horrendous acts are not punished like criminals because we don’t see their actions as crimes. They are seen as unfortunate side effects of progress, or “just the way things are.” The text begs you to look at your ideas about crime and to see them as distorted by the media, by our own bias, and by the justice system’s history of dealing with