![]() | Big Prisons, Big Dreams The American prison system has grown tenfold since the 1970s, but crime rates in the United States have not decreased. This doesn't surprise Michael J. Lynch, a critical criminologist, who argues that our oversized prison system is a product of our consumer culture, the public's inaccurate beliefs about controlling crime, and the government's criminalizing of the poor. Michael J. Lynch is a professor in the department of criminology at the University of South Florida. |
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