Above the Law: How “Qualified Immunity” Protects Violent Police by 
Arrest-Related Deaths: Statistics and Coverage Assessments by
From 2003 through 2009, a total of 4,813 deaths were reported to the Bureau of Justice Statistics' (BJS) Arrest-Related Deaths (ARD) program. The ARD program is a national collection of persons who die in the custody or under the restraint of state or local law enforcement personnel. Deaths are reportable to the program without considering whether physical custody had been established or whether a formal arrest process had been initiated prior to the time of death. The ARD collection also includes the deaths of persons attempting to elude law enforcement during the course of apprehension. This book examines statistics and coverage assessments of arrest-related deaths.
Arrest Discretion of Police Officers: The Impact of Varying Organizational Structures by
In this study, police commander Groeneveld (Phoenix Police Department) assesses the influence of various types of organizational structures on the degree of discretion exercised by police officers in making field arrests. His analysis is based upon a review of the literature as well as the results of a recent survey of large (over 200 officers)
Beyond Race, Sex, and Sexual Orientation: Legal Equality without Identity by
The conventional interpretation of equality under the law singles out certain groups or classes for constitutional protection: women, racial minorities, and gays and lesbians. The United States Supreme Court calls these groups 'suspect classes'. Laws that discriminate against them are generally unconstitutional. While this is a familiar account of equal protection jurisprudence, this book argues that this approach suffers from hitherto unnoticed normative and political problems. The book elucidates a competing, extant interpretation of equal protection jurisprudence that avoids these problems. The interpretation is not concerned with suspect classes but rather with the kinds of reasons that are already inadmissible as a matter of constitutional law. This alternative approach treats the equal protection clause like any other limit on governmental power, thus allowing the Court to invalidate equality-infringing laws and policies by focusing on their justification rather than the identity group they discriminate against.
Black in Blue: African-American Police Officers and Racism by
From New York to Los Angeles, police departments across the country are consistently accused of racism. Although historically white police precincts have been slowly integrating over the past few decades, African-American officers still encounter racism on the job. Bolton and Feagin have interviewed fifty veteran African-American police officers to provide real-life and vivid examples of the difficulties and discrimination these officers face everyday inside and outside the police station from barriers in hiring and getting promoted to lack of trust from citizens and members of black community.
The Color of the Third Degree: Racism, Police Torture, and Civil Rights in the American South, 1930-1955 by
Available for the first time in English, The Color of the Third Degree uncovers the still-hidden history of police torture in the Jim Crow South. Based on a wide array of previously neglected archival sources, Silvan Niedermeier argues that as public lynching decreased, less visible practices of racial subjugation and repression became central to southern white supremacy. In an effort to deter unruly white mobs, as well as oppress black communities, white southern law officers violently extorted confessions and testimony from black suspects and defendants in jail cells and police stations to secure speedy convictions. In response, black citizens and the NAACP fought to expose these brutal practices through individual action, local organizing, and litigation. In spite of these efforts, police torture remained a widespread, powerful form of racial control and suppression well into the late twentieth century. The first historical study of police torture in the American South, Niedermeier draws attention to the willing acceptance of violent coercion by prosecutors, judges, and juries, and brings to light the deep historical roots of police violence against African Americans, one of the most urgent and distressing issues of our time.
Deadly Injustice: Trayvon Martin, Race, and the Criminal Justice System by
The murder of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin and the subsequent trial and acquittal of his assailant, George Zimmerman, sparked a passionate national debate about race and criminal justice in America that involved everyone from bloggers to mayoral candidates to President Obama himself. With increased attention to these causes, from St. Louis to Los Angeles, intense outrage at New York City's Stop and Frisk program and escalating anger over the effect of mass incarceration on the nation's African American community, the Trayvon Martin case brought the racialized nature of the American justice system to the forefront of our national consciousness. Deadly Injustice uses the Martin/Zimmerman case as a springboard to examine race, crime, and justice in our current criminal justice system. Contributors explore how race and racism informs how Americans think about criminality, how crimes are investigated and prosecuted, and how the media interprets and reports on crime. At the center of their analysis sit examples of the Zimmerman trial and Florida's controversial Stand Your Ground law, providing current and resonant examples for readers as they work through the bigger-picture problems plaguing the American justice system. This important volume demonstrates how highly publicized criminal cases go on to shape public views about offenders, the criminal process, and justice more generally, perpetuating the same unjust cycle for future generations. A timely, well-argued collection, Deadly Injustice is an illuminating, headline-driven text perfect for students and scholars of criminology and an important contribution to the discussion of race and crime in America.
Discrimination by Default: How Racism becomes Routine by
Much as we "select" computer settings by default--reflexively, without thinking, and sometimes without realizing there are other options--we often discriminate by default as well. And just as default computer settings tend to become locked in or entrenched as the standard, discrimination by default creates a situation in which disparate outcomes are expected, accepted, and taken for granted. The killing of Amadou Diallo, racial disparities in medical care, the dominance of Whites and men in certain professions, and even the uneven media attention paid to crimes depending on their victims' race and class, all might be cases of discrimination by, or as, default. Wang contends that, today, most discrimination occurs by default and not design, making legal prohibitions that focus on those who discriminate out of ill will inadequate to redress the largest share of modern discrimination. She draws on social psychology to detail three ways in which unconscious assumptions can lead to discrimination, showing how they play out in a range of everyday settings. Wang then demonstrates how these dynamics interact in medical care to produce an invisible, self-fulfilling, and self-perpetuating prophecy of racial disparity. She goes on to suggest ways in which institutions and individuals might recognize, interrupt, and override the discriminatory default.
Disturbing the Peace: Black Culture and the Police Power after Slavery by
W. C. Handy waking up to the blues on a train platform, Buddy Bolden eavesdropping on the drums at Congo Square, John Lomax taking his phonograph recorder into a southern penitentiary - in Disturbing the Peace, Bryan Wagner revises the history of the black vernacular tradition and gives a new account of black culture by reading these myths in the context of the tradition's ongoing engagement with the law.
Electric-Shock Weapons, Tasers and Policing: Myths and Realities by
Building on five years of research, and drawing on criminology, science and technology studies (STS), socio-legal studies and social psychology, this book is the first non-medical book written on electric-shock weapons, of which the best well known is the TASER brand. The police's ability to use force is one of their most crucial powers, yet one that has been relatively neglected by criminology. This book challenges some of the myths surrounding the use of these weapons and considers their human rights implications and impact on members of the public and officers alike. Drawing on STS, it also considers the role and impact of electric-shock technologies, examines the extent to which technologies and non-human agency may also play a role in shaping officer decision making and discretion, and contributes to long standing debates about police accountability. This is essential reading for policing scholars around the world, particularly those engaged with use of force, culture and accountability, as well as those engaged with Science and Technology studies.
Enforcing Equality: Congress, the Constitution, and the Protection of Individual Rights by
In Enforcing Equality, Rebecca E. Zietlow assesses Congress's historical role in interpreting the Constitution and protecting the individual rights of citizens, provocatively challenging conventional wisdom that courts, not legislatures, are best suited for this role. Specifically focusing on what she calls "rights of belonging"--a set of positive entitlements that are necessary to ensure inclusion, participation, and equal membership in diverse communities--Zietlow examines three historical eras: Reconstruction, the New Deal era, and Civil Rights era of the 1960s. She reveals that in these key periods when rights of belonging were contested and defined, Congress has played the role of protector of rights at least as often as the Supreme Court has adopted this role. Enforcing Equality also engages in a sophisticated theoretical analysis of Congress as a protector of rights, comparing the institutional strengths and weaknesses of Congress and the courts as protectors of the rights of belonging. With the recent new appointments to the Supreme Court and Congressional elections in November 2006, this timely book argues that individual rights are best enforced by the political process because they express the values of our national community, and as such, litigation is no substitute for collective political action.
Enforcing Police Accountability Through Civilian Oversight by
This book explores the sensitive issue of police accountability to civilian oversight bodies to control police excesses. At the centre of the discourse lies the tacit acknowledgement that the enormous power and authority invested in the police does lead to corruption and excesses unless adequate checks and balances are installed. The book analyses these checks and balances and how these can be made more effective. It puts forth a cross-national study of internal and external mechanisms for enforcing police accountability, and critically appraises the effectiveness of civilian oversight bodies. It also touches upon the working of National Human Rights Commission of India. While supporting the role of civil oversight bodies in enforcing police accountability, the author also discusses scenarios of police resistance which have often paralyzed the functioning of oversight bodies in Australia, Canada and U S A. As a solution he recommends that the primary object of an oversight body should not be only to enquire into complaints against police and recommend action against the defaulting officers, but also to highlight systemic inadequacies and recommend changes in policies and procedures. This book will be extremely valuable to professionals in police academies, public administration and state security commissions, and human rights activists.
Essential Texts on Human Rights for the Police: A Compilation of International Instruments by
Human rights law protects the rights and freedoms of individuals and groups within societies. Police officials are uniquely placed to ensure respect for, and secure protection of, those rights and freedoms. Those who exercise power on behalf of the people they serve need to be aware of the human rights standards they are required to meet, and the best practice in their fields of activity.
The Fabrication of Social Order: A Critical Theory of Police Power by
Anyone who considers questions of power cannot help but be struck by the ubiquitous nature, emotional force and political pull of the concept of order. The Fabrication of Social Order examines the role of policing in the fabrication of order.After an initial exploration of the original relationship between police, state power and the question of order, Neocleous focuses on the ways in which eighteenth century liberalism refined and narrowed the concept of the police, a process which masked the power of capital and broader issues of social control. In doing so he challenges the way liberalism came to define policing solely in terms of the question of crime and the rule of law. This liberal definition created a limited and fundamentally misleading understanding of policing which remains in use today. In contrast, Neocleous argues for an expanded concept of police, adequate to the expansive set of institutions through which policing takes place. These institutions are concerned not just with the maintenance or reproduction of order, but with its fabrication, especially the fabrication of a social order based on wage labour. This project, he argues, should be understood as the project of social security. Grasping this point allows a fuller understanding of the ways in which the state polices and secures civil society, and how order is fabricated through law and administration.
Jammed Up: Bad Cops, Police Misconduct, and the New York City Police Department by
Drugs, bribes, falsifying evidence, unjustified force and kickbacks: there are many opportunities for cops to act like criminals. Jammed Up is the definitive study of the nature and causes of police misconduct. While police departments are notoriously protective of their own--especially personnel and disciplinary information--Michael White and Robert Kane gained unprecedented, complete access to the confidential files of NYPD officers who committed serious offenses, examining the cases of more than 1,500 NYPD officers over a twenty year period that includes a fairly complete cycle of scandal and reform, in the largest, most visible police department in the United States. They explore both the factors that predict officer misconduct, and the police department's responses to that misconduct, providing a comprehensive framework for understanding the issues. The conclusions they draw are important not just for what they can tell us about the NYPD but for how we are to understand the very nature of police misconduct. ACTUAL MISCONDUCT CASES »» An off-duty officer driving his private vehicle stops at a convenience store on Long Island, after having just worked a 10 hour shift in Brooklyn, to steal a six pack of beer at gun point. Is this police misconduct? »» A police officer is disciplined no less than six times in three years for failing to comply with administrative standards and is finally dismissed from employment for losing his NYPD shield (badge). Is this police misconduct? »» An officer was fired for abusing his sick time, but then further investigation showed that the officer was found not guilty in a criminal trial during which he was accused of using his position as a police officer to protect drug and prostitution enterprises. Which is the example of police misconduct?
Law and the Visible by
If you take a video of police officers beating a Black man into unconsciousness, are you a witness or a bystander? If you livestream your friends dragging the body of an unconscious woman and talking about their plans to violate her, are you an accomplice? Do bodycams and video doorbells tell the truth? Are the ubiquitous technologies of visibility open to interpretation and manipulation? These are just a few of the questions explored in the rich and broadly interdisciplinary essays within this volume, Law and the Visible, the most recent offering in the Amherst Series for Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought. Individual essays discuss the culpability of those who record violence, the history of racialized violence as it streams through police bodycams, the idea of digital images as objective or neutral, the logics of surveillance and transparency, and a defense of anonymity in the digital age. Contributors include Benjamin J. Goold, Torin Monahan, Kelli Moore, Eden Osucha, Jennifer Peterson, and Carrie A. Rentschler.
The Legal Foundations of Inequality: Constitutionalism in the Americas, 1776-1860 by 
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by
Once in a great while a book comes along that changes the way we see the world and helps to fuel a nationwide social movement. The New Jim Crow is such a book. Praised by Harvard Law professor Lani Guinier as "brave and bold," this book directly challenges the notion that the election of Barack Obama signals a new era of colorblindness. With dazzling candor, legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." By targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control—relegating millions to a permanent second-class status—even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness. In the words of Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, this book is a "call to action." Called "stunning" by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David Levering Lewis, "invaluable" by the Daily Kos, "explosive" by Kirkus, and "profoundly necessary" by the Miami Herald, this updated and revised paperback edition of The New Jim Crow, now with a foreword by Cornel West, is a must-read for all people of conscience.
The NYPD's First Fifty Years: Politicians, Police Commissioners, and Patrolmen by
The New York Police Department is an iconic symbol of one of the world's most famous cities. The blue uniforms of the men and women who serve on the force have long stood for integrity and heroism in the work to serve and protect the city's residents. And yet, as in any large public organization, the NYPD has also suffered its share of corruption, political shenanigans, and questionable leadership. In The NYPD's First Fifty Years Bernard Whalen, himself a long-serving NYPD lieutenant, and his father, Jon, consider the men and women who have contributed to the department's past, both positively and less so. Starting with the official formation of the NYPD in 1898, they examine the commissioners, politicians, and patrolmen who during the next fifty years left a lasting mark on history and on one another. In the process, they also explore the backroom dealings, the hidden history, and the relationships that set the scene for the modern NYPD that so proudly serves the city today.
Peer Reporting of Unethical Police Behavior by
Kargin examines police officersOCO decision making with regard to peer reporting of unethical police behavior. On a theoretical level, a peer reporting model was developed based on RestOCOs (1984) OC four component, OCO TrevinoOCOs (1986) OC a person-situation interactionist, OCO and, finally, JonesOCO (1991) OC issue-contingentOCO models of ethical decision making for investigation of police officersOCO peer reporting decisions. The results suggest that the perceived seriousness of the unethical behavior is the strongest predictor of police officersOCO peer reporting in minor and moderate policy violations. However, officersOCO attitudes toward professional ethics codes are the strongest predictors of their peer reporting intentions in situations involving major policy violations."
Police Code of Silence in Times of Change by
This book explores the contours of the code of silence and provides policy recommendations geared toward creating an environment less conducive for police misconduct. It responds to the recent calls for police reform, in the wake of the perceived illegitimacy of police actions and the protection that the code of silence seems to provide to the police officers who violate the official rules. Using a case study of a medium-sized U.S. police agency, this book employs the lens of police integrity theory to provide empirically grounded explanations of the code of silence. It examines the potential effects of organizational factors and the attitudes of individual police officers on their willingness to adhere to the code of silence in cases of police corruption, the use of excessive force, interpersonal deviance, and organizational deviance. The book focuses on the following factors that could influence the police code of silence in the times of change: The impact of organizational rule dissemination, discipline, and disciplinary fairness on the scope of the code of silence The role organizational justice plays in shaping police officer willingness to report misconduct The effect that police officers' self-legitimacy has on their decisions to adhere to the code The influence of peer culture on individual police officer amenability to maintain the code The relationship between officers' views of themselves, the organization, and the community on their willingness to report misconduct
Police Coercion: Application of the Force Continuum by
Using observational data from two cities, Terrill studies police use of force to better understand how and why officers resort to force. He examines the extent of force within individual police-citizen encounters and tests numerous theoretical perspectives (sociological, psychological, and organizational) concerning why officers resort to force. Further he offers the Resistance Force Comparative Scale as a means for examining how officers move about the force continuum. Results show that officers use higher levels of force on male, nonwhite, poor, young, and intoxicated citizens, offering primary support within a sociological theoretical framework. Surprisingly, however, officers are not more forceful toward disrespectful citizens. Analyses also reveal that officers differentially escalate and de-escalate force according to the presence and nature of citizen resistance. Interestingly, officers do not jump at the opportunity to use force on resistant suspects, offering instead a second chance to comply before applying increased levels of force.
Police Innovation: Contrasting Perspectives by
Over the last three decades American policing has gone through a period of significant change and innovation. In what is a relatively short historical time frame the police began to reconsider their fundamental mission, the nature of the core strategies of policing, and the character of their relationships with the communities that they serve. This volume brings together leading police scholars to examine eight major innovations which emerged during this period. Including advocates and critics of the innovations, this comprehensive book assesses the impacts of police innovation on crime and public safety.
Police Interrogation and American Justice by
Read him his rights. We all recognize this line from cop dramas. But what happens afterward? In this book, Leo sheds light on a little-known corner of our criminal justice system--the police interrogation. An important study of the criminal justice system, this book provides interesting answers and raises some unsettling questions.
The Police Power: Patriarchy and the Foundations of American Government by
This timely book is a comprehensive treatise on the constitutional and legal history behind the power of the modern state to police its citizens. Dubber explores the roots of the power to police--the most expansive and least limitable of governmental powers--by focusing on its most obvious and problematic manifestation: criminal law.
Police Psychology by
Police psychology is a specialised field of psychology addressing issues specific to police personnel and other public safety workers. Police psychologists work in three main areas supporting police forces to: enhance police organisational structures processes, enhance police operations and by providing services for officers and their families. Today's police experience extreme stress caused by criminals with advanced technology which leaves no footprints as well as court systems which often prevent punishment of the guilty. This new book presents original research results on the leading edge of police psychology.
Police Shootings and Citizen Behavior by
McElvain explores police shootings from a fresh perspective. Combining the theories of routine activities and social disinhibition, McElvain uses citizen behaviors (i.e., alcohol and/or drug intoxication, and prior arrests for violent criminal conduct) as contributory factors to officer-involved shootings. Prior research generally focused on officer characteristics to explain police use of deadly force. McElvain also considers the role of the citizen. When citizen intoxication and prior violent criminal activity are considered along with officer characteristics--gender, race, and age--the officer characteristics are washed out. In other words, citizen behaviors appear to be stronger predictors of police shootings than are the officers demographics.
Policewomen Who Made History: Breaking through the Ranks by
Beginning with a history of women in police work, Snow traces their rise through the ranks, focusing first on the first women to be given a patrol assignment. In their own words, policewomen describe the challenges and advantages of being a woman on the force, and demonstrate the perseverance many of them needed to make it in this mostly boys' club. Facing obstacles such as sex discrimination and harassment, requirements meant to block their ascent, and personal issues that arise when family members don't understand their call to duty, these women broke new ground and paved the way for others who would go on to leadership positions and other higher ranking roles. This vivid and inspiring account illustrates both the barriers women faced and continue to cope with in the field of police work but also celebrates their achievements and triumphs along the way.
The Politics of Community Policing: Rearranging the Power to Punish by
In this in-depth examination of community policing in Seattle, William T. Lyons, Jr. explores the complex issues associated with the establishment and operation of community policing, an increasingly popular method for organizing law enforcement in this country. Stories about community policing appeal to a nostalgic vision of traditional community life. Community policing carries with it the image of a safe community in which individual citizens and businesses are protected by police they know and who know them and their needs. However, it also carries an image of community based in partnerships that exclude the least advantaged, strengthen the police, and are limited to targeting those disorders feared by more powerful parts of the community and most amenable to intervention by professional law enforcement agencies. The author argues that the politics of community policing are found in the construction of competing and deeply contested stories about community and the police in environments characterized by power inbalances. Community policing, according to the author, colonizes community life, increasing the capacity of the police department to shield itself from criticism, while manifesting the potential for more democratic forms of social control as evidenced by police attention to individual rights and to impartial law enforcement. This book will be of interest to sociologists and political scientists interested in the study of community power and local politics as well as criminologists interested in the study of police. William T. Lyons, Jr. is Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Akron. He previously worked for the Seattle Police Department.
The Politics of Force: Media and the Construction of Police Brutality by
When police brutality becomes front-page news, it triggers a sudden, intense interaction between the media, the public, and the police. Regina Lawrence ably demonstrates how these news events provide the raw materials for looking at underlying problems in American society. Journalists, policy makers, and the public use such stories to define a problematic situation, and this process of problem definition gives the media a crucial role in our public policy debates. Lawrence extensively analyzes more than 500 incidents of police use-of-force covered by the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times from 1985 to 1994, with additional analysis of more recent incidents such as as the shooting of Amadou Diallo in New York. The incidents include but are not limited to those defined as "police brutality." Lawrence reveals the structural and cultural forces that both shape the news and allow police to define most use-of-force incidents, which occur in far greater numbers than are reported, she says. Lawrence explores the dilemma of obtaining critical media perspectives on policing policies. She examines the factors that made the coverage of the Rodney King beating so significant, particularly after the incident was captured on video. At the same time, she shows how an extraordinary news event involving the police can become a vehicle for marginalized social groups to gain entrance into the media arena. In contrasting "event-driven" problem definition with the more thoroughly studied "institutionally driven" news stories, Lawrence's book fills a major gap in media studies. It also offers a broader understanding of the interplay between the criminal justice system and the media in today's world.
Race, Ethnicity, and Policing: New and Essential Readings by
From Rodney King and driving while black; to claims of targeting of undocumented Latino immigrants, relationships surrounding race, ethnicity, and the police have faced great challenge. Race, Ethnicity, and Policing includes both classic pieces and original essays that provide the reader with a comprehensive, even-handed sense of the theoretical underpinnings, methodological challenges, and existing research necessary to understand the problems associated with racial and ethnic profiling and police bias. This path-breaking volume affords a holistic approach to the topic, guiding readers through the complexity of these issues, making clear the ecological and political contexts that surround them, and laying the groundwork for future discussions. The seminal and forward-thinking twenty-two essays clearly illustrate that equitable treatment of citizens across racial and ethnic groups by police is one of the most critical components of a successful democracy, and that it is only when agents of social control are viewed as efficient, effective, and legitimate that citizens will comply with the laws that govern their society. The book includes an introduction by Robin S. Engel and contributions from leading scholars including Jeffrey A. Fagan, James J. Fyfe, Bernard E. Harcourt, Delores Jones-Brown, Ramiro Martínez, Jr., Karen F. Parker, Alex R. Piquero, Tom R. Tyler, Jerome H. Skolnick, Ronald Weitzer, and many others.
Race, Ethnicity and Law by
This new volume of Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance addresses issues of race and ethnicity within the law and law-related phenomena. Even in today's so-called multicultural, post-racial world racial and ethnic concerns prevail in many aspects of modern law. Contributors to this volume examine racial and ethnic disparities in sentencing and punishment; the continued problematic nature of the African American experience within the US system; the criminalization of immigrants; racial inequities in the administration of drug laws; and the racial disparities that affect juvenile justice. This volume will be of interest to students and researchers in law, socio-legal studies, criminology, criminal justice, sociology and public policy.
Race, Place, and Suburban Policing: Too Close for Comfort by
While considerable attention has been given to encounters between black citizens and police in urban communities, there have been limited analyses of such encounters in suburban settings. Race, Place, and Suburban Policing tells the full story of social injustice, racialized policing, nationally profiled shootings, and the ambiguousness of black life in a suburban context. Through compelling interviews, participant observation, and field notes from a marginalized black enclave located in a predominately white suburb, Andrea S. Boyles examines a fraught police-citizen interface, where blacks are segregated and yet forced to negotiate overlapping spaces with their more affluent white counterparts.
Race on the Brain: What Implicit Bias gets Wrong about the Struggle for Racial Justice by
Kahn's important and masterly work deserves close reading and broad discussion among practitioners and students of law and public policy, but even more so among those interested in promoting racial justice. Laura E. Gómez, author of Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race: Race on the Brain makes a critical intervention at a time when implicit bias has become a dominant racial frame (witness its presence in the 2016 presidential debates). Without denying its limited value, Kahn persuasively argues that policy makers' and legal scholars' embrace of implicit bias ignores history, social context, and power--the very things that make racism so intractable today. Osagie K. Obasogie, author of Blinded by Sight: Seeing Race Through the Eyes of the Blind: Race on the Brain offers a provocative examination of contemporary discussions of race, racism, and law. Kahn carefully assesses the scientific framework of implicit bias, highlighting its laudable intent and aspirations while revealing hidden challenges. This is a thoughtful and timely contribution that will surely enrich ongoing conversations on race and human cognition and their socio-legal significance. Alondra Nelson, author of The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation After the Genome: As powerful as implicit bias tests may be for uncovering prejudice, Kahn skillfully reveals that there are no quick fixes for the problem of deeply entrenched racism. Analytically brilliant and sobering, Race on the Brain asks us to think harder about the structures underlying racial inequality and to be cautious of technological panaceas that promise easy solutions to the intractable work of ensuring social justice. Troy Duster, author of Backdoor to Eugenics, University of California, Berkeley: Well-reasoned and meticulously documented, this book sounds the loudest warning yet that the current seduction to considering racism as implicit bias can dangerously undermine long-fought attempts to better understand the structural sources of racial inequality. Little irony is lost in suggesting that twenty-first century neuroscience has enabled a reincarnation of the early twentieth-century conception of race in America, a view that an analysis of discrimination can be reduced to individuals' personal bias.
Redefining Equality by
This book brings together essays from a distinguished group of scholars, presenting an array of views about the meaning of equality and providing perspectives on the on-going debates about it. By bringing together essays from prominent writers in America in law, history, and social science, the collection presents a range of opinions and insights that speak to America's ability to define and deal with the politics of equality.
Scientific Evidence and Equal Protection of the Law by
Scientific and social scientific evidence has informed judicial decisions and the making of constitutional law for decades, but for much of U.S. history it has also served as a rhetorical device to justify inequality. It is only in recent years that scientific and statistical research has helped redress discrimination--but not without controversy. Scientific Evidence and Equal Protection of the Law provides unique insights into the judicial process and scientific inquiry by examining major decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, civil rights advocacy, and the nature of science itself. Angelo Ancheta discusses leading equal protection cases such as Brown v. Board of Education and recent litigation involving race-related affirmative action, gender inequality, and discrimination based on sexual orientation. He also examines less prominent, but equally compelling cases, including McCleskey v. Kemp, which involved statistical evidence that a state's death penalty was disproportionately used when victims were white and defendants were black, and Castaneda v. Partida, which established key standards of evidence in addressing the exclusion of Latinos from grand jury service. For each case, Ancheta explores the tensions between scientific findings and constitutional values.
The Struggle for Equal Adulthood: Gender, Race, Age, and the Fight for Citizenship in Antebellum America by
In the fight for equality, early feminists often cited the infantilization of women and men of color as a method used to keep them out of power. Corinne T. Field argues that attaining adulthood--and the associated political rights, economic opportunities, and sexual power that come with it--became a common goal for both white and African American feminists between the American Revolution and the Civil War. The idea that black men and all women were more like children than adult white men proved difficult to overcome, however, and continued to serve as a foundation for racial and sexual inequality for generations. In detailing the connections between the struggle for equality and concepts of adulthood, Field provides an essential historical context for understanding the dilemmas black and white women still face in America today, from "glass ceilings" and debates over welfare dependency to a culture obsessed with youth and beauty. Drawn from a fascinating past, this book tells the history of how maturity, gender, and race collided, and how those affected came together to fight against injustice.
The Torture Machine: Racism and Police Violence in Chicago by
"With his colleagues at the People's Law Office (PLO), Taylor has argued landmark civil rights cases that have exposed corruption and cover-ups within the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and throughout the city's corrupt political machine. The Torture Machine takes the reader from the 1969 murders of Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton and Panther Mark Clark--and the historic thirteen years of litigation that followed--through the dogged pursuit of commander Jon Burge, the leader of a torture ring within the CPD that used barbaric methods, including electric shock, to elicit false confessions from suspects. Joining forces with community activists, torture survivors and their families, other lawyers, and local reporters, Taylor and the PLO gathered evidence from multiple cases to bring suit against the CPD officers and the City of Chicago. As the struggle expanded beyond the torture scandal to the ultimately successful campaign to end the death penalty in Illinois, and obtained reparations for many of the torture survivors, it set human rights precedents that have since been adopted across the United States"--Jacket.
Training the 21st Century Police Officer: Redefining Police Professionalism for the Los Angeles Police Department by
This study recommends that the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) adopt a concept of police professionalism that incorporates the tenets of corporateness, responsibility, and expertise as the mechanism for guiding the development and execution of its training, to include training in the areas of use of force, search and seizure, arrest procedures, community policing, and diversity awareness.
Understanding Police Culture by
Police culture has been widely criticized as a source of resistance to change and reform, and is often misunderstood. This book seeks to capture the heart of police culture--including its tragedies and celebrations--and to understand its powerful themes of morality, solidarity, and common sense, by systematically integrating a broad literature on police culture into middle-range theory, and developing original perspectives about many aspects of police work.
Urban Politics, Crime Rates, and Police Strength by
Stucky (criminal justice, Indiana-Purdue U. at Indianapolis) analyzes the relationship between politics, crime, and police employment, expenditures, and arrests. Using political resource theory, he examines how resources are managed and provides an institutional resource perspective about crime and politics, while discussing social disorganization,
Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? by
What is the reality of policing in the United States? Do the police keep anyone safe and secure other than the very wealthy? How do recent police killings of young black people in the United States fit into the historical and global context of anti-blackness? This collection of reports and essays (the first collaboration between Truthout and Haymarket Books) explores police violence against black, brown, indigenous and other marginalized communities, miscarriages of justice, and failures of token accountability and reform measures. It also makes a compelling and provocative argument against calling the police. Contributions cover a broad range of issues including the killing by police of black men and women, police violence against Latino and indigenous communities, law enforcement's treatment of pregnant people and those with mental illness, and the impact of racist police violence on parenting, as well as specific stories such as a Detroit police conspiracy to slap murder convictions on young black men using police informant and the failure of Chicago's much-touted Independent Police Review Authority, the body supposedly responsible for investigating police misconduct. The title Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? is no mere provocation: the book also explores alternatives for keeping communities safe. Contributors include William C. Anderson, Candice Bernd, Aaron Cant#65533;, Thandi Chimurenga, Ejeris Dixon, Adam Hudson, Victoria Law, Mike Ludwig, Sarah Macaraeg, and Roberto Rodriguez.
