Peter McWilliams’ classic from the early 90s. McWilliams himself later became a casualty of the state. The primary cause of police misconduct, mass incarceration, and related issues is overcriminalization, not lack of police “training,” lack of social worker cops, private prisons, or even racism in some abstract sense. All of these things are symptoms, not causes. The main weakness of this book is that is focusing mostly on “morals” related laws like drugs and prostitution, and not overcriminalization generally, which extends into a huge range of areas.

Available here.