Crime and Prison

California’s Prisons Fail the Mentally Ill (But They Can Change)

  • Jessica Pishko

The Gun Library

An Ethic of Crime in São Paulo

  • Graham Denyer Willis

Gangsta Folk

If gangsta rap lyrics are evidence of criminality, what are we to make of gruesome murders depicted in many folk and country songs?

  • Simon Waxman

Tsarnaev: Dismantle the Gallows

Granting mercy is among humanity’s hardest tasks.

  • Simon Waxman

Trench Democracy in Criminal Justice: an Interview with Lauren Abramson

Participatory Innovation in Unlikely Places.

  • Albert W. Dzur

When Kids Are Sex Offenders

  • Sally Mairs

Sign up for our newsletter

You Won’t See This on TV

The truth about America’s broken criminal justice system is significantly more interesting than scriptwriters’ fiction.

  • Seth Abramson

High in Uruguay

The South American Country May Soon Be the First in the World to Officially Cultivate and Distribute Marijuana

  • Michelle García

Twelve Absent Men

Rebuilding the American Jury

  • Albert W. Dzur

Beyond Blame

The philosophy of personal responsibility has ruined criminal justice and economic policy. It’s time to move past blame.

  • Barbara H. Fried
with responses from
  • Paul Bloom
  • Christine M. Korsgaard
  • Gideon Rosen
  • Erin Kelly
  • Brian Leiter
  • Adriaan Lanni
  • George Sher
  • Mike Konczal
  • T. M. Scanlon

Bloody Abroad

Amanda Knox finds herself.

  • Merve Emre

Martial Flaw

Why Tsarnaev is not an enemy combatant.

  • Elizabeth Goitein

Left Behind

Colombia may be entering peace talks, but the changes are not benefiting everyone.

  • Gimena Sánchez

Who Shot Valerie Finley?

Why One Man’s Innocence Is So Hard To Prove

  • Beth Schwartzapfel

Strapped

My eight years with a gun.

  • Hal Stucker

Votes Behind Bars

As of 2010, more than 5.85 million American citizens were disenfranchised because of criminal convictions. This is troubling. 

  • Pamela S. Karlan

The Execution of Carlos DeLuna

Preventing Wrongful Convictions

  • Gabriel O’Malley

Juárez Rebounds . . . Sort of

From 2008 until 2011, Juárez was among the world’s most violent cities.

  • Sarah Hill

Forty Years After Watergate

The Decades-Long Fight Against Political Money

  • Pamela S. Karlan

Much to Answer For

James Q. Wilson’s legacy.

  • Glenn C. Loury

Crime and Punishment

Public safety doesn’t require more inmates.

  • Bruce Western

The Cost of Death

Ineffective trial lawyers, inconclusive evidence, inconsistent testimony, and impenetrable procedural thickets are not unique to capital cases.

  • Pamela S. Karlan

Border Wars

A Boston Review Book

  • Tom Barry

Harm’s Way

Our penal system, with its black tinge, constitutes a profound racial injustice. But is it a new form of Jim Crow?

  • James Forman, Jr.
trending_flat
Get our newsletter

Vital reading on politics, ideas, and culture to your inbox

A political and literary forum, independent and nonprofit since 1975

Registered 501(c)(3) organization

Help Us Stay Paywall-Free

Donate

Become a Member

Subscribe