The Political Logic of Injustice

2020 ◽  
pp. 50-74
Author(s):  
Hannah L. Walker
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Chicago Area ◽  
Area Survey ◽  
Criminal Justice Contact ◽  
Institutional Mechanism

Chapter 3 mainly aims to offer evidence for the claim that a sense of systemic injustice links personal and proximal contact to political mobilization. Findings from the National Crime and Politics Survey (NCPS) empirically validate that criminal justice contact can mobilize and show, crucially, that a sense of injustice can moderate the otherwise demobilizing effects of contact. The chapter’s secondary aim chapter is to offer empirical evidence for the claim that contact with a CBO is an institutional mechanism that can increase participation among custodial citizens. The importance of CBO contact to participation increases with the intensity of contact with the criminal justice system. To support this view, the chapter draws on the Chicago Area Survey (CAS) collected in 2014 and demonstrates that CBO contact plays a critical role in mobilizing custodial citizens.

A Truce in Criminal Law’s Distributive Principle Wars?

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 565-583
Author(s):  
Paul H. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Criminal Liability ◽  
A Value ◽  
Principles Of Justice ◽  
Past Wrongs

Crime-control utilitarians and retributivist philosophers have long been at war over the appropriate distributive principle for criminal liability and punishment, with little apparent possibility of reconciliation between the two. In the utilitarians’ view, the imposition of punishment can be justified only by the practical benefit that it provides: avoiding future crime. In the retributivists’ view, doing justice for past wrongs is a value in itself that requires no further justification. The competing approaches simply use different currencies: fighting future crime versus doing justice for past wrongs. It is argued here that the two are in fact reconcilable, in a fashion. We cannot declare a winner in the distributive principle wars but something more like a truce. Specifically, good utilitarians ought to support a distributive principle based upon desert because the empirical evidence suggests that doing justice for past wrongdoing is likely the most effective and efficient means of controlling future crime. A criminal justice system perceived by the community as conflicting with its principles of justice provokes resistance and subversion, whereas a criminal justice system that earns a reputation for reliably doing justice is one whose moral credibility inspires deference, assistance, and acquiescence, and is more likely to have citizens internalize its norms of what is truly condemnable conduct. Retributivists ought to support empirical desert as a distributive principle because, while it is indeed distinct from deontological desert, there exists an enormous overlap between the two, and it seems likely that empirical desert may be the best practical approximation of deontological desert. Indeed, some philosophers would argue that the two are necessarily the same.

Instrumental and Symbolic Politics in Policing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Allsop
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Police Legitimacy ◽  
Symbolic Politics ◽  
Political Background ◽  
Cold Case ◽  
Police Practices

This chapter considers the development of, and growing interest in, cold case reviews, distinguishing between the instrumental and symbolic politics which surround their development. What becomes clear in this chapter is that the rise in interest can be attributed to a number of individual and interlocking events, including changes in police legitimacy, the introduction of a number of police reforms, and initiatives resulting in changes to police practices, pressure from victims’ rights groups for more attention from the criminal justice system, and advances in scientific techniques and technologies with increasing uses found for them. The chapter briefly considers the political background to cold case reviews, and how this connects with the broader politics of policing along with the instrumental politics of maintaining major crime review teams and the symbolic politics which helps to justify expenditure in cold case reviews.

Seeking Racial Justice Through Data in 2021 and Beyond

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 269-271
Author(s):  
Melba V. Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Community Safety ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Health And Wellness ◽  
Racial Justice

In the wake of the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial, many people are posing the question as to what is next for racial and social justice. As the power of the prosecutor has been on display in recent months, what can be done to make sure that accountability is spread evenly among all races in the criminal justice system? For decades, the metric of a prosecutor’s success revolved around conviction rates. As thinking has evolved around the country, success now includes areas such as community safety, health, and wellness – which requires a new way to measure the work being done. Data provides this information. Data will play a critical role in ensuring transparency, changing policy, and making sure that justice is dispensed equally. Data creates a common language, as well as evidence regarding what is working effectively, and what is not. We cannot fix what we do not measure.

West Belfast

The Hoods ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Hamill
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Irish Republican Army

This chapter argues that, from the early days of the political conflict in the 1970s the conditions were such that the Irish Republican Army (IRA) adopted some of the functions of the state, namely the provision of policing and punishment of ordinary crime. The hostility of the statutory criminal justice system, particularly the police, toward the working-class Catholic community dramatically increased the costs of using state services. The high levels of disaffection and aggression among working-class Catholics toward the police meant that the state could no longer fulfill its function and police the community in any “normal” way. A demand for policing therefore existed. Simultaneously, this demand was met and fostered by the IRA, which had the motivation, the manpower, and the monopoly on the use of violence necessary to carry out this role.

Mobilized by Injustice

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Hannah L. Walker
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Racial Group ◽  
Central Mechanism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Criminal Justice Contact

Chapter 1 introduces many research questions, around which the rest of the volume organized. Under what conditions are individuals mobilized by criminal justice experiences and under what conditions do these experiences lead to demobilization? What is the central mechanism connecting criminal justice contact to political mobilization outcomes? Do mobilization and withdrawal vary by racial group? Lastly, does political mobilization and withdrawal vary by type of activity? Chapter 1 further situates the inquiry in a longer history of resistance around issues related to criminal justice, outlines the methodological approach of the research, and gives an overview of the remainder of the manuscript.

For Love and Justice: The Mobilizing of Race, Gender, and Criminal Justice Contact

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (04) ◽  
pp. 541-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah L. Walker ◽  
Marcela García-Castañon
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Justice System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western Democracy ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Criminal Background ◽  
Criminal Justice Contact ◽  
The Impact

This paper examines the political implications of the criminal justice system for those who experience it indirectly: the friends and extended families of individuals who become caught up in the criminal justice system through heightened police surveillance, arrest, probation/parole and incarceration, which scholars have termed “custodial citizenship” (Lerman and Weaver 2014, 8). Contact with the criminal justice system is increasingly common in the United States, which incarcerates more of its citizens than any other western democracy (West, Sabol, and Greenman 2010). In addition to the 2.3 million people currently behind bars scholars estimate that more than 19 million have a felony (Uggen, Manza, and Thompson 2006). Fully 23% of Black adults have a criminal background, and Latinos make up 50% of federal inmates, highlighting extreme racial disparities in American criminal justice (Meissner et al. 2013). A growing body of research explores the impact of criminal justice contact on political participation finding that depressed voter turnout is the result whether one has been incarcerated, arrested, or lives in a high-contact community (Burch 2011, 2013; Lerman and Weaver 2014).

Capable Women, Incapable States

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poulami Roychowdhury
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
The Public ◽  
Legal Enforcement ◽  
Criminal Justice Systems ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Public Sphere

How do women claim rights against violence in India and with what consequences? By observing how women navigate the Indian criminal justice system, Roychowdhury provides a unique lens on rights negotiations in the world’s largest democracy. She finds that women interact with the law not by following legal procedure or abiding by the rules but by deploying collective threats and doing the work of the state themselves. They do so because law enforcement personnel are incapacitated and unwilling to enforce the law. As a result, rights negotiations do not necessarily lead to more woman-friendly outcomes or better legal enforcement. Instead, they allow some women to make gains outside the law: repossess property and children, negotiate cash settlements, join women’s groups, access paid employment, develop a sense of self-assurance, and become members of the public sphere. Capable Women, Incapable States shows how the Indian criminal justice system governs violence against women not by protecting them from harm but by forcing them to become “capable”: to take the law into their own hands and complete the hard work that incapable and unwilling state officials refuse to complete. Roychowdhury’s book houses implications for how we understand gender inequality and governance not just in India but in large parts of the world where political mobilization for rights confronts negligent and incapacitated criminal justice systems.

The Political Theology of Mass Incarceration

2020 ◽  
pp. 65-104
Author(s):  
Joshua Dubler ◽  
Vincent W. Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Religious Imagination

Chapter 2 tracks the way American political elites talked about justice and punishment before and during the rise of mass incarceration. The authors show how these concepts were once closely connected with the religious imagination. When that link was severed, justice was reduced to the proper functioning of the law, to a criminal justice system, and a new set of ideas and institutions promoting law and order and victims’ rights took over. The chapter demonstrates how, at the level of political rhetoric, religion—along with economics and race—was essential for promoting incarceration as the sole mechanism for effecting justice.

Jail Incarceration: A Common and Consequential Form of Criminal Justice Contact

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 265-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Turney ◽  
Emma Conner
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Household Surveys ◽  
The Common ◽  
Common Nature ◽  
Criminal Justice Contact

Although jails are both common and consequential, affecting millions of individuals annually, they are a relatively understudied aspect of the criminal justice system. In this review, we first document the prevalence of jail incarceration, highlighting how jail incarceration has risen in tandem with the more commonly examined prison incarceration. Next, we describe the population of individuals in jail, paying particular attention to the heterogeneous and disadvantaged nature of this population. We document how jail incarceration is measured, demographically and in household surveys, and argue that jail incarceration has lasting and profound consequences for individuals, families, and communities. We conclude the review by suggesting directions for future research. Given the common nature of jail incarceration—in conjunction with the fact that jail incarceration creates, sustains, and perpetuates inequality—a better understanding of the prevalence, correlates, and consequences of jail incarceration is critical for fully understanding the link between the criminal justice system and inequality.

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