Why are increased sentences and the severe punishment of those convicted of crimes so popular and prevalent in U.S. culture? Since the late 1970s our society has accepted increasingly rigid and vengeful ways of punishing those convicted of crimes.
Chip Berlet
Chip Berlet is an investigative journalist and photographer, and has been documenting social and political movements that undermine human rights since the 1960s. Chip’s byline has appeared in scores of publications, including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Progressive, and Amnesty Now. He has been a guest expert on ABC’s Nightline, The Today Show, NPR’s All Things Considered, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Democracy Now with Amy Goodman, among other radio and television programs. From 1981 to 2010, he served as senior analyst at Political Research Associates. He authored Eyes Right! and Right-Wing A style of politics that involves an effort to mobilize “the people” into a social or political movement around some form of anti-elitism. Such movements can be egalitarian or authoritarian, inclusive or exclusionary, forward-looking or fixated on a romanticized image of the past. Learn more in America: Too Close for Comfort (with Matthew N. Lyons) and is a frequent contributor to Talk2Action and Huffington Post. He currently coordinates the online Building Human Rights Network and A mass movement that seeks to transform society and challenge existing power relationships by means other than (but often including) the political electoral process. Learn more Study Network.
