Write a paper discussing the overlap of crime, punishment, and poverty. In your paper, please explain the following five core arguments made by the authors:

Criminal sanctions and victimization work to form a system of disadvantage that perpetuates stratification and poverty.  Punishment impacts individuals convicted of felonies, as well as their families, peer groups, neighborhoods, and racial group.  After controlling for population differences, African Americans are incarcerated approximately seven times as often as Whites.  Variation in criminal punishment is linked to economic deprivation.  As the number of felons and former felons rises, collateral sanctions play an ever-larger role in racial and ethnic stratification, operating as an interconnected system of disadvantage.

You will find the reading choices and the grading rubric on the Resources tab.

Assignment information:  Identify the main points of each reading and discuss critically and analytically—use your sociological imagination!  This can include comparing/contrasting the two readings, making connections between the two readings, how you see the readings relating (or not) to your life experiences (although you must talk about more than just this!), questions you have after thinking about the readings, and/or how the readings relate to information from the core textbook and/or lecture and discussion section activities…  A good place to start is to consider any questions posed at the end of the reading, if given. You need to include at least two quotes (with an in-text citatation—see below for format information) from each reading in such a way that it is meaningful and explained as needed.  Your writeup should be at least 900 words.  You will need to write in a word processing program–and be sure to save a copy—then copy/paste into the moodle assignment dropbox.