《特权与惩罚》内容简介

　　本书向我们揭示了刑事庭审中种族、阶层与犯罪的特殊关系：正义也有贵贱之分，辩护律师对特权阶层的诉求趋之若鹜，对穷人与有色人种的工薪阶层的正义则不屑一顾。

　　近几十年来，美国受到逮捕、审判和监禁的人口数量激增。形形色色的被告人来自不同的种族与阶层，然而他们受到的惩罚竟然也大相径庭。本书审视了种族不平等与阶层差异对辩护律师与委托人的关系的渗透影响，揭示了平等公正在刑事法庭内外荡然无存的悲惨状况。

　　马修·克莱尔通过旁听刑事听证、与被告人、辩护律师、法官、警察和缓刑考验官访谈等形式对波士顿法院展开了系统性的实地考察，最终写就了这本令人眼界大开的著作。在本书中，作者揭露了不平等的特权如何在刑事审判中施加影响：当居于不利地位的被告人尝试了解其合法权利并为自己辩护时，律师和法官却往往强迫他们保持沉默，进而施以刑罚。然而对于那些享有特权的被告人而言，他们会更加信任自己的律师，委任其代行权利，也会服从法官的命令，并因此获得从宽的处罚。作者克莱尔通过本书告诉我们，对于穷人和有色人种工薪阶层而言，他们要想行使权利只会起到反作用，仅仅依赖有效辩护并不能实现正义。

　　总而言之，本书行文妙笔生花、论证气势磅礴，其不仅引领着大众开始关注被告人与辩护律师之间辩护关系缺乏公正的现状，而且提出了纠正这些问题的必要改革措施。

　　作者简介

　　马修·克莱尔（MatthewClair），斯坦福大学社会学及法学助理教授，哈佛大学哲学博士（PhD）。研究兴趣为刑事司法制度、法律职业及司法不平等现象。曾在《犯罪学》《法律与社会评论》《波士顿评论》等知名权威期刊发表论文，曾获2022年度美国犯罪学会露丝·肖勒·卡文杰出青年学者奖，斯坦福大学最高教学奖——沃尔特·J·戈雷斯卓越教学奖。郭航，中南财经政法大学法学院讲师，法学博士、博士后，研究兴趣为刑事诉讼法学，译有《无罪之罚——美国司法的不公正》《告密——美国司法黑洞》。

A brief introduction to Privileges and Punishments

This book reveals the special relationship between race, class, and crime in criminal trials: justice is equally important, and defense lawyers are eager to pursue the demands of the privileged, while disregarding justice for the poor and working-class people of color.

In recent decades, the number of people arrested, tried and imprisoned in the United States has skyrocketed. The defendants came from different races and classes, yet their punishments were strikingly different. This book examines the pernicious effects of racial inequality and class differences on the attorney-client relationship, revealing the tragic breakdown of justice in and out of the criminal courts.

Matthew Clair's eye-opening book is the result of a systematic field trip to Boston courtrooms through criminal hearings and interviews with defendants, defense attorneys, judges, police, and probation officers. In this book, the author reveals how unequal privilege plays a role in criminal trials: when disadvantaged defendants try to understand their legal rights and defend themselves, lawyers and judges often impose penalties by forcing them to remain silent. Privileged defendants, however, are more likely to trust their lawyers, appoint them to act on their behalf, obey the judge's orders, and receive lenient punishment. Claire tells us that for the poor and working-class people of color, the exercise of their rights is counterproductive, and that justice cannot be achieved by relying solely on effective advocacy.

All in all, the book is brilliantly written and eloquently argued, and it not only draws attention to the lack of justice in the defense relationship between defendants and defense attorneys, but also proposes the necessary reforms to correct these problems.

About the author

MatthewClair is an assistant professor of sociology and law at Stanford University and a PhD at Harvard University. His research interests include the criminal justice system, the legal profession and justice inequality. He has published papers in well-known authoritative journals such as Criminology, Law and Social Review, Boston Review, and won the Ruth Sholler Carvin Outstanding Young Scholar Award of the American Society of Criminology in 2022, and the Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching, the highest teaching award of Stanford University. Guo Hang is a lecturer at the Law School of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law. His research interests are criminal procedure Law. He is the author of the translation of "Innocent Punishment: The Injustice of American Justice" and "Whistleblowing: The Black Hole of American Justice".