Economic Sodomy: How Modern Frauds Work and How to Protect Yourself Book

Thought provoking, to be sure, but ultimately I disagree with Darrow's conclusions.

While the criminal justice system is indisputably broken, I think Darrow errs in ascribing the causes of crime to being purely environmental, and I especially disagree with his conception of criminal behavior as a "disease." He denies the role of free will, reducing men to nothing more than the product of their environments, not as the thinking, acting, purpose-driven beings they are. Having a poor upbringing or living in a bad environment do not "cause" crime, they just change the incentives.

Darrow's commitment to non-violence is mostly admirable but, like Gandhi, he goes too far, denying that violence is acceptable even in self-defense or to stop someone from committing a heinous act. I wish he had gone into more specifics about his theory of criminal justice. For example, how would he deal with a rampaging serial killer who showed no signs of remorse? This book gives the impression that he would simply give the man a hug and hope for the best, hardly an acceptable course of action in my view. In fact, Darrow never talks about the victims of violent crimes, expressing sympathy only for the criminals themselves.

Sending non-violent offenders to prison in order to pay their debt to "society" serves no useful purpose, but neither does allowing murderers and rapists to roam free with no consequences for their actions.