“We’re in this exciting moment where we’ve had 40 years of being ‘tough on crime,’ and we’ve finally come to recognize that it really hasn’t worked very well,” says sociologist Alice Goffman bluntly. America needs to think differently.
“我们正处于一个令人深思的时刻——40年来我们一直奉行’严厉打击犯罪’的政策，而我们终于开始意识到，这种做法其实效果甚微，”社会学家爱丽丝·戈夫曼直言不讳地说。”近几年来，科学家们已经证明，监禁与犯罪之间的关系基本上为零。犯罪率时升时降，而监禁人数却持续增长。这并不是打击犯罪的好方法。”
谈到监狱问题，戈夫曼——一位身形娇小、眼神明亮、笑容开朗的女性——从不拐弯抹角。在温哥华会议中心的一张沙发上，她向前倾着身子，距离她发表TED演讲还有一天——那场演讲的主题正是将监禁作为解决犯罪问题的万能方案所带来的弊端。她对眼前这一切的不公正义愤填膺，而这种感受来自亲身经历。作为一名民族志学者，她在费城某个特定社区生活了逾十年，与那里的年轻黑人男性及其家庭同呼吸、共命运。这些人深陷一套如同”蛇梯棋”般的体制，而这套体制似乎是专门为让他们一次次遭遇”蛇口”而设计的。
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