“To Wage a War”: Crime, Race, and State Making in the Age of FDR

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-41
Author(s):  
Matthew G. T. Denney
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Racial Violence ◽  
Ratchet Effect ◽  
Local Police ◽  
War On Crime ◽  
Political Entrepreneurs

Abstract The FDR administration waged a war on crime starting in 1933. I argue that this war on crime had three primary effects. First, it created a ratchet effect whereby expanded institutions did not return to previous levels after the campaign ended. Second, it instilled enduring institutional and racial logics into law enforcement in America. By building a state through a war on crime, these leaders constructed a criminal justice system designed to make war. Moreover, they perpetuated the surveillance of Black leaders and eschewed calls from Black organizations demanding protection from widespread racial violence. Third, these political entrepreneurs induced an issue realignment that defined crime policy around a politics of consensus—a consensus that included every major political bloc but Black Americans, who unsuccesfully called on the federal government to hold local police accountable and address racial inequality. This coalition diffused their methods to states and deployed future wars on crime, and the racial logics cemented in the FDR era set the stage for these future wars to be deployed disproportionately against the Black community.

Racial Justice and Criminal Justice

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Valls
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Black Neighborhoods

The criminal justice system in the United States both reflects racial inequality in the broader society and contributes to it. The overrepresentation of African Americans among those in prison is a result of both the conditions in poor black neighborhoods and racial bias in the criminal justice system. The American system of criminal justice today is excessively punitive, when compared to previous periods and to other countries, and its harsh treatment disproportionately harms African Americans. In addition, those released from prison face a number of obstacles to housing, employment, and other prerequisites of decent life, and the concentration of prisoners and ex-prisoners in black communities does much to perpetuate racial inequality.

Crack and Criminal Justice in Canton, Ohio, 1987–1999: “The Drug Problem has Created a Monster”

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-182
Author(s):  
WILL COOLEY
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Crack Cocaine ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Drug Problem ◽  
Industrial City ◽  
The City

AbstractThe rise of crack cocaine in the late 1980s propelled the war on drugs. The experience of Canton, Ohio, shows how the response to crack solidified mass incarceration. A declining industrial city of 84,000 people in northeast Ohio with deep-seated racial divides, it was overwhelmed by aggressive, enterprising crack dealers from outside the city. In response, politicians and residents united behind the strategy of incessant arrests and drastic prison sentences. The law-enforcement offensive worsened conditions while pursuing African Americans at blatantly disproportionate rates, but few people engaged in reframing the drug problem. Instead, a punitive citizenry positioned punishment as the principal remedy. The emergency foreclosed on more comprehensive assessments of the city’s tribulations, while the criminal justice system emerged as the paramount institution.

Federal Policy and the Racial Integration of Southern Industry, 1961–1980

1999 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Minchin
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Jim Crow ◽  
Voting Rights ◽  
Racial Violence ◽  
Racial Integration ◽  
Single Issue ◽  
Civil Rights Era ◽  
Federal Intervention

In the last two decades, one of the central debates of civil rights historiography has concerned the role that the federal government played in securing the gains of the civil rights era. Historians have often been critical of the federal government's inaction, pointing out that it was only pressure from the civil rights movement itself that prompted federal action against Jim Crow. Other scholars have studied the civil rights record of the federal government by analyzing a single issue during several administrations. In this vein, there have been studies of the federal government's involvement in areas as diverse as black voting rights and racial violence against civil rights workers. These studies have both recognized the importance of federal intervention and have also been critical of the federal government's belated and half-hearted endorsement of civil rights.

Building Bridges Between Researchers and Police Practitioners in Small and Midsize Law Enforcement Agencies in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 104398622199988
Author(s):  
Janice Iwama ◽  
Jack McDevitt ◽  
Robert Bieniecki
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Local Police ◽  
Police Agencies

Although partnerships between researchers and police practitioners have increased over the last few decades in some of the largest police agencies in the United States, very few small agencies have engaged in a partnership with a researcher. Of the 18,000 local police agencies in the United States, small agencies with less than 25 sworn officers make up about three quarters of all police agencies. To support future collaborations between researchers and smaller police agencies, like those in Douglas County, Kansas, this article identifies challenges that researchers can address and explores how these relationships can benefit small police agencies across the United States.

A Police-Social Work Team Model

1974 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harvey Treger ◽  
Doug Thomson ◽  
Gordon Sloan Jaeck
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Work Team ◽  
Service Model ◽  
Cooperative Relationships ◽  
Effective Service ◽  
Team Model

Police and social workers have together developed an effective service model that alleviates overloading in the criminal justice system, develops new cooperative relationships within the system and social welfare, and expands the roles of law enforcement, prosecution, and correction.

“Past injustice and present prejudice”: Reducing racial bias and increasing sympathy by framing historical racism as recent

2021 ◽  
pp. 136843022110058
Author(s):  
Mason D. Burns ◽  
Erica L. Granz
Keyword(s):  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Prejudice Reduction ◽  
Causal Connection ◽  
Subjective Perceptions ◽  
Past Injustice ◽  
Past Injustices

Racial privity judgments – or the perceived causal connection between historical racial discrimination and current suffering among Black Americans – predicts sympathy for the victims of past injustices and perceptions of contemporary racial inequality. Four studies investigated the ideological roots of privity judgments; focusing on subjective temporal perceptions associated with privity judgments (e.g., subjective perceptions that past discrimination occurred more, versus less, recently). Study 1 revealed that liberals perceived historical instances of racial discrimination as having occurred more recently than conservatives, and that temporal perceptions of recency were associated with less anti-Black bias. Studies 2–4 manipulated temporal perceptions of recency by framing past discrimination as having occurred more recently. Results revealed that increasing perceived temporal recency resulted in reduced anti-Black bias and greater sympathy for present-day victims of racial discrimination across political ideology. Discussion surrounds how framing historical information as subjectively recent has implications for prejudice reduction.

FISCAL EQUIVALENCE: PRINCIPLE AND PREDATION IN THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 244-265
Author(s):  
Emily C. Skarbek
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Equivalence Principle ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
Local Police ◽  
Administration Of Justice ◽  
Internal Pressures ◽  
And Control

AbstractFiscal equivalence in the public administration of justice requires local police and courts to be financed exclusively by the populations that benefit from their services. Within a polycentric framework, broad based taxation to achieve fiscal equivalence is a desirable principle of public finance because it conceptually allows for the provision of justice to be determined by constituent’s preferences, and increases the political accountability of service providers to constituents. However, the overproduction of justice services can readily occur when the benefits of the justice system are not enjoyed equally. Paradoxically, the same properties that make fiscal equivalence desirable by imposing restraint and control between constituents and local government also create internal pressures for agents of the state to engage in predatory, revenue-generating behavior.

scholarly journals Managing criminal acts on the psychiatric ward: understanding the police view

2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 359-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Bayney ◽  
George Ikkos
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Psychiatric Services ◽  
Case Vignette ◽  
Psychiatric Ward ◽  
Police Services ◽  
Local Police ◽  
Legal Remedies

Success in preventing and responding to criminal behaviours on psychiatric wards may sometimes require cooperation between mental health services and local police services. This is especially so when seeking legal remedies through the criminal justice system. This article describes police perceptions of psychiatric services and psychiatric patients. It also reviews police procedures and factors that influence their response when the police are requested to intervene following an alleged criminal act by an in-patient. A case vignette is used to highlight the causes of tensions and guide the reader through the steps that might be considered when the issue of prosecution arises.

scholarly journals Color Crit: Critical Race Theory and the History and Future of Colorism in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Reece
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
The United States ◽  
Skin Tone ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
American Society

Critical race theory teaches that racism and racial inequality are constants in American society that stand outside of the prejudices of individuals. It argues that structures and institutions are primarily responsible for the maintenance of racial inequality. However, critical race theorists have neglected to formally examine and theorize colorism, a primary offshoot of racial domination. Although studies of colorism have become increasingly common, they lack a unifying theoretical framework, opting to lean on ideas about prejudice and preference to explain the advantages lighter skinned, Black Americans are afforded relative to darker skinned Black Americans. In this study, I deploy a critical race framework to push back against preference as the only, or primary, mechanism facilitating skin tone stratification. Instead, I use historical Census data and regression analysis to explore the historical role of color-based marriage selection on concentrating economic advantage among lighter skinned Black Americans. I then discuss the policy and legal implications of developing a structural view of colorism and skin tone stratification in the United States and the broader implications for how we conceptualize race in this country.

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