Containment and Condemnation: Law and the Oppression of the Urban Poor

The populations of American cities have always included poor people, but the predicament of the urban poor has worsened over time. Considered lazy paupers in the early nineteenth century, the urban poor came to be seen as a violent criminal “underclass” by the end of the twentieth. Living primarily in the nation’s deindustrialized inner cities and making up nearly 15 percent of the population, today’s urban poor are oppressed people living in the midst of American affluence. An essential text for both law students and those drawn to areas of social justice, this book examines how law works for, against, and with regard to the urban poor.