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In My Father's House: A New View of How Crime Runs in the Family
In My Father's House: A New View of How Crime Runs in the Family | Fox Butterfield
7 posts | 7 read | 6 to read
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.
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DocBrown
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Pickpick

I decided to read this after The Foundling raised the issues of criminality, heredity, and eugenics. It‘s an excellent exploration of how at least 60 members of just one family have been imprisoned or under supervision for committing a crime. The book doesn‘t really settle the nature/nurture debate; it‘s likely an interaction between the two - as with so many other (anti)social phenomena. A family saga of a different kind ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Ephemera
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Pickpick

This book is non-fiction and follows several generations of one criminal family. The question of nature or nurture is often raised about criminal offspring and this book shows how the parents and family of career criminals start them down that path. It‘s harrowing to read about all the lives wasted in just one family. The author also writes here about studies done on repeat offenders and various programs aimed at curtailing recidivism.

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Hooked_on_books
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Pickpick

Using the data that 10% of all families are responsible for 2/3 of all crime, Butterfield explores the (white) Bogle family to illustrate the ideas of learned behavior. The first half is a bit bland and I felt there wasn‘t enough discussion of the psychological theories or the interplay between mental illness and learned criminal behavior in these families, but the second half, which held more stories in people‘s own words, was fascinating.

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TheBookAddict
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Wow, what can I say about this book? It obviously doesn‘t read like a story, because it is nonfiction. The author makes the content readable because it could‘ve been a drag to read, but it wasn‘t. He made sure to present the reader with an anecdote of the lives of the Bogle family members and then explain how those anecdotes were examples different theories. He really drives home the fact that not just one factor determines who becomes a criminal.

TheBookAddict (Continued) He is clear on the fact that genes and the environment both play a part in a person‘s propensity for criminality. Also that our “corrections” system isn‘t correcting anything. On the contrary, it is making things worse and costing us a lot of money. I will be looking for more of this author‘s books. 6y
TheBookAddict I couldn‘t believe how many crimes one person could commit and just keep on trucking. It just seems so unreal, but I guess it isn‘t. This book has made me see criminals and our criminal justice system in a new light. (edited) 6y
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TheBookAddict

“...the more people we send to prison, the more new candidates we are creating among their children, who may later end up committing crimes and be put behind bars themselves. Mass incarceration thus becomes a vicious cycle.”

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TheBookAddict
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Went upstairs to our little library and sat on my chair so I could read some more of this ARC (tagged book) and #TookeyToles decided to jump on my lap. She is intent on fighting off sleep. 😆

#catmomproblems #mybrat #TolesBrats #catsoflitsy #littenkitten

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TheBookAddict

“What you are raised with, you grow to become...If I‘d been raised in a family of doctors, I‘d probably be a doctor. But I was raised in a family of outlaws who hated the law...”
#ARC #FirsToRead

TheBookKeepers I can see truth in that quote! Not that we can‘t overcome such things, but it‘s an easy mold to fold into and often done so 6y
TheBookAddict @TheBookKeepers yes, so true. I think it‘s definitely hard to break away from that mold. It‘s very hard to go against the grain, but some of us manage it. I personally defied the odds in my family and did not become a teen mom and I graduated from HS and went on to college. I will tell you that even that was hard especially when you grow up being told that you‘re gonna grow up to be just like your sisters before you (not by my parents, of course). 6y
TheBookKeepers 💚 I‘m happy you were able to break that mold! Interested to see ur full review of this book! 6y
TheBookAddict @TheBookKeepers thanks. As soon as I finish it I‘ll post a review and I may actually talk about it on our podcast since it‘s quite interesting so far. 6y
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