Books about Offender from Amazon.com

"California, Labor Day weekend . . . early, with ocean fog still in the streets, outlaw motorcyclists wearing chains, shades and greasy Levis roll out from damp garages, all-night diners and cast-off one-night pads in Frisco, Hollywood, Berdoo and East Oakland, heading for the Monterey peninsula, north of Big Sur. . . The Menace is loose again."  Thus begins Hunter S. Thompson's vivid account of his experiences with California's most no-torious motorcycle gang, the Hell's Angels.   In the mid-1960s, Thompson spent almost two years living with the controversial An-gels, cycling up and down the coast, reveling in the anarchic spirit of their clan, and, as befits their name, raising hell. His book successfully captures a singular moment in American history, when the biker lifestyle was first defined, and when such countercultural movements were electrifying and horrifying America. Thompson, the creator of Gonzo journalism, writes with his usual bravado, energy, and brutal honesty, and with a nuanced and incisive eye; as The New Yorker pointed out, "For all its uninhibited and sardonic humor, Thompson's book is a thoughtful piece of work." As illuminating now as when originally published in 1967, Hell's Angels is a gripping portrait, and the best account we have of the truth behind an American legend.




.
Price: $12.78 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Uncover the truth under all the BS

In the daily battle for our hearts and minds--not to mention our hard-earned cash--the truth is usually the first casualty It's time we learned how to see through the rhetoric, faulty reasoning, and misinformation that we're subjected to from morning to night by talk-radio hosts, op-ed columnists, advertisers, self-help gurus, business "thinkers," and, of course, politicians. And no one is better equipped to show us how than award-winning philosopher Jamie Whyte.

In Crimes Against Logic Whyte take us on a fast-paced, ruthlessly funny romp through the mulligan stew of can, folderol, and bogus logic served up in the media, at the office, and even in your own home. Applying his laserlike wit to dozens of timely examples, Whyte cuts through the haze of facts, figures, and double-talk and gets at the real truth behind what they're telling us.

"An incisive philosopher."
--Sunday Telegraph.
Price: $6.67 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The United States, home to five percent of the worlds' population, now houses twenty-five percent of the world's prison inmates Our incarceration rate—at 714 per 100,000 residents and rising—is almost forty percent greater than our nearest competitors (the Bahamas, Belarus, and Russia). More pointedly, it is 6.2 times the Canadian rate and 12.3 times the rate in Japan.

Economist Glenn Loury argues that this extraordinary mass incarceration is not a response to rising crime rates or a proud success of social policy. Instead, it is the product of a generation-old collective decision to become a more punitive society. He connects this policy to our history of racial oppression, showing that the punitive turn in American politics and culture emerged in the post-civil rights years and has today become the main vehicle for the reproduction of racial hierarchies.

Whatever the explanation, Loury agues, the uncontroversial fact is that changes in our criminal justice system since the 1970s have created a nether class of Americans—vastly disproportionately black and brown—with severely restricted rights and life chances. Moreover, conservatives and liberals agree that the growth in our prison population has long passed the point of diminishing returns. Stigmatizing and confining of a large segment of our population should be unacceptable to Americans. Loury's call to action makes all of us now responsible for ensuring that the policy changes.

Praise for The Anatomy of Racial Inequality:


"Intellectually rigorous and deeply thoughtful.... The Anatomy of Racial Inequality is an incisive, erudite book by a major thinker."
—Gerald Early, New York Times Book Review

A Boston Review Book.
Price: $8.12 [Notify me when price goes down.]

By turns harrowing, moving, and ultimately redemptive, this is a war story -- a war that rages out of control on the streets of the United States, claiming the lives of our loved ones and neighbors In this memoir, complete with child soldiers, unspeakable violence, and eventual salvation, we witness the journey of an East Coast member of the notorious Bloods gang coming to terms with the lost boy he was and the transformation into the man he wants to become.

Unlike the child warriors of Mozambique and Sierra Leone, gang members and the wars they wage are the United States' homegrown nightmare. Lacking protection, support, or any alternatives, Dashaun Morris is forced into battle for the first time at age eleven, in the streets of Phoenix, when a friend's older brothers put him in a car filled with 40s and weed smoke, put a gun in his hands, then make him point it at the men on the corner and squeeze the trigger. The targets are Crips, of course, and, as Morris writes, "In the darkness of the streets, my childhood is murdered.... I am reborn -- a gangster."

In this haunting, violent memoir, Morris takes us through an American childhood turned grotesquely inside out. In the fourth grade, he loses his first friend in a drive-by shooting. By high school he is the man, a champion on the football field by day and a reputable banger on his 'hood turf by night.

Living the life of a gang banger, Morris does it all -- drug dealing, jacking, and continuing the aimless war with rival gang members -- almost opening fire one night on a close friend, a cheerleader, as she hangs out with young men he mistakes for Crips.

He eventually makes it to college on a football scholarship, but on the verge of being drafted by the NFL, Morris can't escape his gang-banging mentality and gets caught up in crimes that snatch away all future hopes. Sitting in a prison cell, he anticipates the birth of his first child while counting the friends he's buried.

War of the Bloods in My Veins is part of Morris's redemption, a cry to his brothers that gang life is mental illness. It is a rare and brutally honest look into the relentless storm of abandonment, violence, crime, death, and the endless rush toward the complete and utter self-annihilation that plagues the lives of the young "soldiers" who die every day in our streets..
Price: $5.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The popularity of television shows like NBC's "Profiler" and movies such as "Silence of the Lambs" has made the concept of criminal profiling familiar to most Americans Though such dramas follow the general approach of real-life criminal investigative analysis, Hollywood's artistic license too often simplifies and even sensationalises the work of those who attempt to unravel the complex workings of the criminal mind. In this compilation of expert articles written by internationally recognised homicide investigators - most of them pioneers in developing the science and the art of profiling - readers gain fascinating insights that could have emerged only after years of experience tracking and analysing the behaviour of some of America's most notorious serial criminals.In "Profilers", editors John H Campbell and Don DeNevi bring together for the first time a collection of articles on important facets of criminal profiling - which, for the most part, have remained a mystery to the general public. The contributors cover many gripping topics - including an interview with cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer, details of autoerotic fatalities, the challenges of creating psychological profiles, and the use of forensic linguistics to track the Unabomber 0 and they try to understand why some killers go to such extremes as removing the eyes of their victims or setting their helpless victims ablaze. These contemporary pieces follow and expand upon some original articles on criminal profiling - reports on dealing with hostage situations and on sexual killers who disfigure their bodies.A must for readers of true crime, forensic investigations, and murder mysteries, this unique collection of revealing articles offers a chilling and unparalleled glimpse into the inner workings of the criminal mind..
Price: $15.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This compelling book, which has been thoroughly revised and updated, draws on candid interviews with over 400 women inmates and prison officials to shed a shocking light on our penal system as it affects women..
Price: $12.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Marauding gangs have become a fact of life in the U.S., but where did these violent groups come from, and why are they so appealing to so many youths today? This comprehensive guide provides answers to these questions and more. It will open your eyes to a world few of us know, but most of us fear..
Price: $15.43 [Notify me when price goes down.]