In My Father's House

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist: a pathbreaking examination of our huge crime and incarceration problem that looks at the influence of the family—specifically one Oregon family with a generations-long legacy of lawlessness.The United States currently holds the distinction of housing nearly one quarter of the world's prison population. But our reliance on mass incarceration, Fox Butterfield argues, misses the intractable reality: As few as five percent of American families account for half of all crime, and only ten percent account for two-thirds. In introducing us to the Bogle family the author invites us to understand crime in this eye-opening new light. He chronicles the malignant legacy of criminality passed from parents to children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren. Examining the long history of the Bogles, a white family, Butterfield offers a revelatory look at criminality that forces us to disentangle race...