From the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist: a
pathbreaking examination of our huge crime and incarceration problem
that looks at the influence of the family--specifically one Oregon
family with a generations-long legacy of lawlessness.
The United States currently holds the distinction of housing nearly
one-quarter of the world's prison population. But our reliance on mass
incarceration, Fox Butterfield argues, misses the intractable reality:
As few as 5 percent of families account for half of all crime, and only
10 percent account for two-thirds. In introducing us to the Bogle
family, the author invites us to understand crime in this eye-opening
new light. He chronicles the malignant legacy of criminality passed from
parents to children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren.
Examining the long history of the Bogles, a white family, Butterfield
offers a revelatory look at criminality that forces us to disentangle
race from our ideas about crime and, in doing so, strikes at the heart
of our deepest stereotypes. And he makes clear how these new insights
are leading to fundamentally different efforts at reform. With his
empathic insight and profound knowledge of criminology, Butterfield
offers us both the indelible tale of one family's transgressions and
tribulations, and an entirely new way to understand crime in America.
