Welcome to Litsy!

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 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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.

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.

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.

“...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.”

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

“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