Rich Crime, Poor Crime

In this brilliant book, Colin Webster shows that today’s billionaire kleptocrats and oligarchs are, in reality, the capitalist ‘children’ of their robber forebears. With a critical eye firmly on the violent and plundering historical role of states, companies and the upper classes Webster provides a passionate, detailed and sweeping review of the myriad abuses of humanity that became enshrined in elite-state formations and law, alongside the power they came to wield with colonial expansion. As the winners of the economic system strode and plundered the globe’s resources, new forms and extremes of damage to populations were unleashed, sanctified in law. A work of scholarship, insight and relevant example, Rich Crime, Poor Crime reinvigorates debate about the complex roots of harm in the societies and economies we all inhabit. This is a history of harm absolutely for our time today.

-- Rowland Atkinson

Colin Webster is to be congratulated for producing such an insightful book at a time when a discussion of the relationships between inequality and crime is needed more than ever. Drawing on a range of existing studies, Webster takes us on a journey from early modern England to the present day, illuminating how contemporary British society is founded on a legacy of past exploitation by elites against the populous. In examining the conditions of extreme inequality that give rise to both crimes committed by the poor and crimes committed by the rich, Webster provides us with the text 1973’s The New Criminology suggested was needed.

-- Stephen Farrall

This is an extraordinarily important book on how inequality shapes, and is shaped by, the law and criminal justice system. A must-read for everyone concerned with social justice.

-- Kate E. Pickett

We have become so accustomed to the idiom that ‘there is one law for the rich and another for the poor’ that its precise origins, meaning, and effects are often obfuscated. Webster provides a rich and detailed expose of how inequalities built into early processes of capitalist accumulation, colonial exploitation and formulations of the 'rule of law’ persist today. Rich Crime, Poor Crime is a devastating critique of how networks of elite power continue to inflict violence, theft and hardship on others whilst remaining immune to legal sanction.

-- John Muncie

Rich Crime, Poor Crime boldly challenges our usual ways of thinking about crime, social harm and inequality. Adopting a historical approach, Colin Webster shows how the rich have legalized and obscured practices that harm others and allow them to benefit at others' expense, and continue to do so in novel ways. Accessible, direct and compelling.

-- Andrew Sayer * Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Lancaster Universi