THE COMMUNITY in CRIMINAL JUSTICE Subordination, Consumption, Resistance, and Transformation
THE COMMUNITY IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE Subordination, Consumption, Resistance, and Transformation Monica C. Bell Yale Law School and Department of Sociology, Yale University Abstract This article sets forth four modalities of the relationship between members of marginalized communities and the criminal justice system: subordination, consumption, resistance, and transformation. These modalities attempt to break out of traditional ways of thinking about community members’ formal roles in the system—defendants, witnesses, victims, judges, prosecutors, police officers, correctional officers, and the indeterminate but oft-invoked “community.” Instead, these modalities are fluid and situational. This article also calls for new research, scholarship, and advocacy that takes seriously how members of communities that the criminal legal system most deeply and directly affects engage in these fluid and situational modalities. Attention to the complexity of “community” is essential to creating lasting change in social systems of blame and punishment. Keywords: Community, Criminal Justice, Policing, Agency, Resistance, Legal Estrangement INTRODUCTION How are members of marginalized communities connected with the criminal legal system? How might reformers understand the complexities of those entanglements? This article sets forth four modalities of the relationship between members of marginalized communities and the criminal justice system: subordination, consumption, resistance, and transformation. These modalities attempt to break out of traditional ways of thinking about community members’ formal roles in the system—defendants, witnesses, victims, judges, prosecutors, police officers, correctional officers, and the indeterminate but oft-invoked “community.” Instead, these modalities are fluid and situational. This article also calls for new research, scholarship, and advocacy that takes seriously how members of communities that the criminal justice system most deeply and directly affects engage in these fluid and situational modalities.
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