Why Are the Truly Disadvantaged American, When the UK Is Bad Enough?
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Race and Drugs Oxford Handbooks Online
Race and Drugs Oxford Handbooks Online Race and Drugs Jamie Fellner Subject: Criminology and Criminal Justice, Race, Ethnicity, and Crime, Drugs and Crime Online Publication Date: Oct 2013 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199859016.013.007 Abstract and Keywords Blacks are arrested on drug charges at more than three times the rate of whites and are sent to prison for drug convictions at ten times the white rate. These disparities cannot be explained by racial patterns of drug crime. They reflect law enforcement decisions to concentrate resources in low income minority neighborhoods. They also reflect deep-rooted racialized concerns, beliefs, and attitudes that shape the nation’s understanding of the “drug problem” and skew the policies chosen to respond to it. Even absent conscious racism in anti-drug policies and practices, “race matters.” The persistence of a war on drugs that disproportionately burdens black Americans testifies to the persistence of structural racism; drug policies are inextricably connected to white efforts to maintain their dominant position in the country’s social hierarchy. Without proof of racist intent, however, US courts can do little. International human rights law, in contrast, call for the elimination of all racial discrimination, even if unaccompanied by racist intent. Keywords: race, drugs, discrimination, arrests, incarceration, structural racism Millions of people have been arrested and incarcerated on drug charges in the past 30 years as part of America’s “war on drugs.” There are reasons to question the benefits—or even rationality—of that effort: the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars has done little to prevent illegal drugs from reaching those who want them, has had scant impact on consumer demand, has led to the undermining of many constitutional rights, and has helped produce a large, counterproductive, and expensive prison system. -
Race and Criminal Justice in Canada
International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences Vol 11 Issue 2 July – December 2016 Copyright © 2016 International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences (IJCJS) – Official Journal of the South Asian Society of Criminology and Victimology (SASCV) - Publisher & Editor-in-Chief – K. Jaishankar ISSN: 0973-5089 July – December 2016. Vol. 11 (2): 75–99. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlikeHTU 4.0 International (CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0) License ,UTH whichT permits unrestricted non-commercial use ,T distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Race and Criminal Justice in Canada Charles Reasons 1 Central Washington University, United States of America Shereen Hassan, Michael Ma, Lisa Monchalin 2 Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Canada Melinda Bige 3 University of Victoria, Canada Christianne Paras 4 Fraser Region Community Justice Initiatives, Canada Simranjit Arora 5 Faculty of Law, Thompson River University, Canada Abstract The relationship between race and crime has long been a subject of study in the United States; however, such analysis is more recent in Canada. A major factor impeding such study is the fact that racial/ethnic data are not routinely collected and available in Canada, unlike the United States. The collection of such data would arguably undermine the multi-cultural mosaic of Canada as a place of acceptance and tolerance. However, the lack of such data bellies research suggesting that race plays a role in the Canadian criminal justice system. Using available, albeit, limited research studies and their data, the role of race is evident throughout the justice system. -
Overview of Race and Crime, We Must First Set the Parameters of the Discussion, Which Include Relevant Definitions and the Scope of Our Review
Overview CHAPTER 1 of Race and Crime Because skin color is socially constructed, it can also be reconstructed. Thus, when the descendants of the European immigrants began to move up economically and socially, their skins apparently began to look lighter to the whites who had come to America before them. When enough of these descendants became visibly middle class, their skin was seen as fully white. The biological skin color of the second and third generations had not changed, but it was socially blanched or whitened. —Herbert J. Gans (2005) t a time when the United States is more diverse than ever, with the minority popula- tion topping 100 million (one in every three U.S. residents; U.S. Census Bureau, 2010), the notion of race seems to permeate almost every facet of American life. A Certainly, one of the more highly charged aspects of the race dialogue relates to crime. Before embarking on an overview of race and crime, we must first set the parameters of the discussion, which include relevant definitions and the scope of our review. When speaking of race, it is always important to remind readers of the history of the concept and some current definitions. The idea of race originated 5,000 years ago in India, but it was also prevalent among the Chinese, Egyptians, and Jews (Gossett, 1963). Although François Bernier (1625–1688) is usually credited with first classifying humans into distinct races, Carolus Linnaeus (1707–1778) invented the first system of categorizing plants and humans. It was, however, Johan Frederich Blumenbach (1752–1840) who developed the first taxonomy of race. -
Explaining the Gaps in White, Black, and Hispanic Violence Since 1990
ASRXXX10.1177/0003122416635667American Sociological ReviewLight and Ulmer 6356672016 American Sociological Review 2016, Vol. 81(2) 290 –315 Explaining the Gaps in White, © American Sociological Association 2016 DOI: 10.1177/0003122416635667 Black, and Hispanic Violence http://asr.sagepub.com since 1990: Accounting for Immigration, Incarceration, and Inequality Michael T. Lighta and Jeffery T. Ulmerb Abstract While group differences in violence have long been a key focus of sociological inquiry, we know comparatively little about the trends in criminal violence for whites, blacks, and Hispanics in recent decades. Combining geocoded death records with multiple data sources to capture the socioeconomic, demographic, and legal context of 131 of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States, this article examines the trends in racial/ethnic inequality in homicide rates since 1990. In addition to exploring long-established explanations (e.g., disadvantage), we also investigate how three of the most significant societal changes over the past 20 years, namely, rapid immigration, mass incarceration, and rising wealth inequality affect racial/ ethnic homicide gaps. Across all three comparisons—white-black, white-Hispanic, and black- Hispanic—we find considerable convergence in homicide rates over the past two decades. Consistent with expectations, structural disadvantage is one of the strongest predictors of levels and changes in racial/ethnic violence disparities. In contrast to predictions based on strain theory, racial/ethnic wealth inequality has not increased disparities in homicide. Immigration, on the other hand, appears to be associated with declining white-black homicide differences. Consistent with an incapacitation/deterrence perspective, greater racial/ethnic incarceration disparities are associated with smaller racial/ethnic gaps in homicide. -
Race and the Criminal Justice System 1
RACE AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM 1 RACE AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: A STUDY OF RACIAL BIAS AND RACIAL INJUSTICE By Nicole C. Haug Advised by Professor Chris Bickel SOC 461, 462 Senior Project Social Sciences Department College of Liberal Arts CALIFORNIA POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITY Fall, 2012 © 2012 Nicole Haug RACE AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM 2 Table of Contents Research Proposal…………………………………………………………………………………3 Annotated Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………..4 Outline…………………………………………………………………………………………….9 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………10 Research………………………………………………………………………………………….12 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….35 References………………………………………………………………………………………..37 RACE AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM 3 Research Proposal The goal of my senior project is to study how race influences criminal justice issues such as punitive crime policy, contact with law enforcement officers, profiling, and incarceration, etc. I intend to study the history of crime policy in the U.S. and whether or not racial bias within the criminal justice system exists (especially against African Americans) and if racial neutrality is even possible. I will conduct my research using library and academic sources, such as books and peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles, as well as web sources. I will specifically use sources that highlight the racial disparities found within the criminal justice system, and that offer critical and sociological explanations for those disparities. My hypothesis is that I will find that racial bias in the criminal justice system has created the racial disparities that exist and that racial neutrality within the system is unlikely. RACE AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM 4 Annotated Bibliography Alexander, M. (2010). The new jim crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness . New York: The New Press. -
Theoretical Perspectives on Race and Crime
Theoretical CHAPTER 3 Perspectives on Race and Crime A wide variety of sociological, psychological, and biological theories have been proposed to explain the underlying causes of crime and its social, spatial, and temporal distribution. All of these theories are based on the assumptions that crime is accurately measured. But when variation in crime patterns and characteristics is partially attributable to unreliability in the measurement of crime, it is impossible to empirically validate the accuracy of competing criminological theories. —Mosher, Miethe, and Hart (2011, p. 205) onsidering the historical and contemporary crime and victimization data and sta- tistics presented in Chapter 2, the logical next question is, What explains the crime patterns of each race? Based on this question, we have formulated two goals for this C chapter. First, we want to provide readers with a rudimentary overview of theory. Second, we want to provide readers with a summary of the numerous theories that have relevance for explaining race and crime. In addition to this, where available, we also discuss the results of tests of the theories reviewed. Last, we also document some of the shortcom- ings of each theory. Decades ago, criminology textbooks devoted a chapter to race and crime (Gabbidon & Taylor Greene, 2001). Today most texts cover the topic, but only in a cursory way. In general, because of the additional focus on race and crime, scholars have written more specialized books, such as this one, to more comprehensively cover the subject. But even in these cases, many authors devote little time to reviewing specific theories related to race and crime (Walker, Spohn, & DeLone, 2012). -
Keynote Speakers Cvs
Keynote Speakers CVs H.E. Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. LL.M. Susanne Baer, Justice of the Federal Con- stitutional Court, Germany Professor Baer serves as Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court in Germany, elected by the Bundestag in 2011 to the First Senate, for a 12 years term. She is the Professor of Public Law and Gender Studies at Humboldt University Berlin and a James W. Cook Global Law Professor at the University of Michigan Law School, where she received an honorary doctorate in 2014, as she did from the University of Hasselt (2017) and from the University of Lucerne (2018). She is a Corresponding Fellow at the British Academy of Arts and Sciences, where she gave the Maccabean Lecture in 2019. She has taught at CEU Budapest, in Austria, Switzerland and Canada. Prof. Baer studied law and political science and was active in movements against dis- crimination, including pornography, sexual harassment and domestic violence; from 2003 until 2010, she directed the Gender Competence Centre to advise the German federal government on gender mainstreaming. At Humboldt University, she served as Vice-President for International and Student Affairs, as Director of Gender Studies and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Law, and she founded the Law and Society Institute Berlin and a Law Clinic in Human Rights. Publications in English include: Comparative Constitutionalism. 3rd edition, Thomson/West 2016 (with N Dorsen, M Rosenfeld, A Sajó, S Mancini); The Rule of—and not by any—Law. On Constitutionalism, Current Legal Problems 71 (2018) 335; The Difference a Justice May Make: Remarks at the Symposium for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Columbia J of Gender & Law 25 (2013), Equality, in: Rosenfeld/ Sajo, The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Constitu- tional Law, OUP 2012, 982; Dignity, Liberty, Equality: A Fundamental Rights Triangle of Con- stitutionalism, Toronto LJ 4 (2009) 417. -
Crime and Punishment in the US: Political Systems and Technology Regime Change
Crime and Punishment in the US: Political Systems and Technology Regime Change Nicola Lacey and David Soskice LSE Law, Society and Economy Working Papers 22/2019 London School of Economics and Political Science Law Department This paper can be downloaded without charge from LSE Law, Society and Economy Working Papers at: www.lse.ac.uk/collections/law/wps/wps.htm and the Social Sciences Research Network electronic library at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3492701 © Nicola Lacey and David Soskice. Users may download and/or print one copy to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. Users may not engage in further distribution of this material or use it for any profit-making activities or any other form of commercial gain. This paper can be downloaded without charge from LSE Law, Society and Economy Working Papers at: www.lse.ac.uk/collections/law/wps/wps.htm and the Social Sciences Research Network electronic library at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=[number]. Crime and Punishment in the US: Political Systems and Technology Regime Change Nicola Lacey and David Soskice* Abstract: One of the most extraordinary social science phenomena of the postwar period has been the rise in violent crime in large American cities from the 1970s to the mid 1990s and the consequent rise in incarceration; and then its subsequent dramatic decline in most of those cities and the correspondingly decisive decline in the increase in imprisonment. An echo of these ‘waves’ occurred in almost all advanced economies; but their amplitude in the US case is quite exceptional. We seek to explain: why the waves, and why the exceptional American amplitude? Comparative political economy has had little to say in recent decades about American exceptionalism in general and about American crime and punishment in particular. -
Understanding the Determinants of Penal Policy: Crime, Culture and Comparative Political Economy
Understanding the Determinants of Penal Policy: crime, culture and comparative political economy Nicola Lacey, David Soskice and David Hope Working paper 13 July 2017 III Working paper 13 Nicola Lacey, David Soskice and David Hope LSE International Inequalities Institute The International Inequalities Institute (III) based at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) aims to be the world’s leading centre for interdisciplinary research on inequalities and create real impact through policy solutions that tackle the issue. The Institute provides a genuinely interdisciplinary forum unlike any other, bringing together expertise from across the School and drawing on the thinking of experts from every continent across the globe to produce high quality research and innovation in the field of inequalities. For further information on the work of the Institute, please contact the Institute Manager, Liza Ryan at [email protected]. International Inequalities Institute The London School of Economics and Political Science Houghton Street London WC2A 2AE Email: [email protected] Web site: www.lse.ac.uk/III @LSEInequalities LSE Inequalities © Nicola Lacey, David Soskice, David Hope. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including notice, is given to the source. 2 III Working paper 13 Nicola Lacey, David Soskice and David Hope Abstract This review sets out four main explanatory paradigms of penal policy—focusing on, in turn, crime, cultural dynamics, economic structures and interests, and institutional differences in the organisation of different political economies as the key determinants of penal policy. -
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Crime and Criminal Justice in the United States
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Crime and Criminal Justice in the United States The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Sampson, Robert J., and Janet L. Lauritsen. 1997. Racial and ethnic disparities in crime and criminal justice in the United States. Crime and Justice 21: 311-374. Published Version http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/449253 Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:3226952 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Crime and Criminal Justice in the United States Author(s): Robert J. Sampson and Janet L. Lauritsen Source: Crime and Justice, Vol. 21, Ethnicity, Crime and Immigration: Comparative and Cross -National Perspectives (1997), pp. 311-374 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1147634 Accessed: 01/08/2009 03:02 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. -
SECTION III Theoretical Perspectives on Race and Crime READING
SECTION III Theoretical Perspectives on Race and Crime SECTION HIGHLIGHTS · What Is Theory? · Biological Theories on Race and Crime · Sociological Theories on Race and Crime · Summary · Edited Readings y What Is Theory? According to Bohm (2001), “A theory is an explanation” (p. 1). Some theory can be found in practically everything we do. When it comes to explaining crime, just about everyone has an opinion. All of these insights, however, might not qualify as scientific theory. Curran and Renzetti (2001) stated that a scientific theory is “a set of interconnected state- ments or propositions that explain how two or more events or factors are related to one another” (p. 2). Furthermore, scientific theories are usually logically sound and empiri- cally testable. They also help us “expand our knowledge of the world around us and sug- gest systematic solutions to problems we repeatedly confront” (p. 2). Many of the theories reviewed in this chapter fit some of the criteria posed by Curran and Renzetti, whereas others do not—but in our view, they all provide useful insights into race and crime. This section provides a brief introduction to theories that have been applied to racial/ethnic groups and their involvement in crime. For example, we review biological approaches that look to physical features or genetic inheritance to explain 95 96 RACE AND CRIME: A TEXT/READER crime. We also review sociological theories that have their foundations in the American social structure, social processes, or culture. We begin with a review of biological theories and how they have been applied to explain crime committed by racial/ethnic groups. -
Disparate Effects in the Criminal Justice System: a Response to Randall Kennedy's Comment and Its Legacy
UCLA National Black Law Journal Title Disparate Effects in the Criminal Justice System: A Response to Randall Kennedy's Comment and Its Legacy Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4b57c56b Journal National Black Law Journal, 14(2) ISSN 0896-0194 Author Nelson, Janai S. Publication Date 1997 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Disparate Effects in the Criminal Justice System: A Response to Randall Kennedy's Comment and Its Legacy Janai S. Nelson* I. INTRODUCTION For many African Americans, the criminal justice system symbolizes an oppressive force, and yet, is a necessary institution in an increasingly lawless society. We' are at the same time its victims and beneficiaries, although various sentiments exist regarding the extent to which we are either. It is precisely this paradox, coupled with the promulgation of cer- tain criminal legislation and legal precedent which directly and, potentially, adversely affect the African-American community, 2 that inspired me to ad- dress the issues and arguments raised in Randall Kennedy's The State, CriminalLaw, and Racial Discrimination:A Comment3 and their resound- ing implications.4 In particular, this Essay focuses on two timely and controversial law enforcement issues facing the courts and the African-American commu- nity: the crack/powder cocaine distinction in criminal statutes and selective prosecution claims based on the disparity between federal and state sen- tencing schemes. I examine the experiences of our community that shape our response to these issues by addressing the constitutional claims raised by African-American defendants in two portentous criminal cases-one state and one federal-and confronting important arguments made by Kennedy in the areas of law enforcement and constitutional analysis.