Ngina Chiteji on the Criminal Justice System

Faithful Economy

This episode is an interview of Ngina Chiteji, an associate professor of economics at NYU. She does research on wealth and savings, crime, and inequality. She is on the editorial board of the Review of Black Political Economy, and co-editor of a volume on wealth accumulation in communities of color.

In it we discuss criminal justice reform and mass incarceration, with special attention to the “invisible punishments” that accompany an encounter with the justice system, including fines, debt, reductions of civil rights, and long-term labor market penalties. Chiteji is particularly interested in the way we think about justice and morality, and so she also gives us a tour of different ways we can think about what justice should look like, to help us do a better job shaping public policy.

Ngina Chiteji at NYU (https://gallatin.nyu.edu/people/faculty/nc518.html)

Articles and Reports discussed in this episode:

Chiteji (2017) Prodigal Sons: Incarceration, Punishment, and Morality. Faith & Economics. (http://christianeconomists.org/2018/02/05/prodigal-sons-incarceration-punishment-and-morality-chiteji/)

Chiteji (2021) Wealth and Retirement: Pondering the Fate of Formerly Incarcerated Men During the Golden Years. Review of Black Political Economy. (https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.hope.edu/doi/full/10.1177/0034644620964914)

Becker (1968). Crime and punishment: An economic approach. Journal of Political Economy (https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.hope.edu/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-62853-7_2)

National Research Council Report (2014) The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences. (https://www.nap.edu/catalog/18613/the-growth-of-incarceration-in-the-united-states-exploring-causes)

Books

Locked In by John Pfaff (2017)

A Pound of Flesh by Alexes Harris (2016)

What Money Can’t Buy by Michael Sandel (2012)

Anger and Forgiveness by Martha Nussbaum (2016)

Ending Overcriminalization and Mass Incarceration by Anthony Bradley (2018)

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (2015)

Moral Tribes by Joshua Greene (2014)

The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt (2012)

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