Retributive Abolitionism
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In Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me
“OVERPOLICED AND UNDERPROTECTED”:1 RACIALIZED GENDERED VIOLENCE(S) IN TA-NEHISI COATES’S BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME “SOBREVIGILADAS Y DESPROTEGIDAS”: VIOLENCIA(S) DE GÉNERO RACIALIZADA(S) EN BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME, DE TA-NEHISI COATES EVA PUYUELO UREÑA Universidad de Barcelona [email protected] 13 Abstract Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me (2015) evidences the lack of visibility of black women in discourses on racial profiling. Far from tracing a complete representation of the dimensions of racism, Coates presents a masculinized portrayal of its victims, relegating black women to liminal positions even though they are one of the most overpoliced groups in US society, and disregarding the fact that they are also subject to other forms of harassment, such as sexual fondling and other forms of abusive frisking. In the face of this situation, many women have struggled, both from an academic and a political-activist angle, to raise the visibility of the role of black women in contemporary discourses on racism. Keywords: police brutality, racism, gender, silencing, black women. Resumen Con la publicación de la obra de Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me (2015) se puso de manifiesto un problema que hacía tiempo acechaba a los discursos sobre racismo institucional: ¿dónde estaban las mujeres de color? Lejos de trazar un esbozo fiel de las dimensiones de la discriminación racial, la obra de Coates aboga por una representación masculinizada de las víctimas, relegando a las miscelánea: a journal of english and american studies 62 (2020): pp. 13-28 ISSN: 1137-6368 Eva Puyuelo Ureña mujeres a posiciones marginales y obviando formas de acoso que ellas, a diferencia de los hombres, son más propensas a experimentar. -
Policing, Protest, and Politics Syllabus
Policing, Protest, and Politics: Queers, Feminists, and #BlackLivesMatter WOMENSST 295P / AFROAM 295P Fall 2015 T/Th 4:00 – 5:15pm 212 Bartlett Hall Instructor: Dr. Eli Vitulli Office: 7D Bartlett Email: [email protected] Office hours: Th 1:30-3:30pm (& by appointment only) COURSE OVERVIEW Over the past year few years, a powerful social movement has emerged to affirm to the country and world that Black Lives Matter. Sparked by the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman in Stanford, Florida, and Zimmerman’s acquittal as well as the police killings of other black men and women, including Michael Brown, Rekia Boyd, and Freddie Gray, this movement challenges police violence and other policing that makes black communities unsafe as well as social constructions of black people as inherently dangerous and criminal. Police violence against black people and the interrelated criminalization of black communities have a long history, older than the US itself. There is a similarly long and important history of activism and social movements against police violence and criminalization. Today, black people are disproportionately subject to police surveillance and violence, arrest, and incarceration. So, too, are other people of color (both men and women) and queer, trans, and gender nonconforming people of all races but especially those of color. This course will examine the history of policing and criminalization of black, queer, and trans people and communities and related anti-racist, feminist, and queer/trans activism. In doing so, we will interrogate how policing and understandings of criminality—or the view that certain people or groups are inherently dangerous or criminal—in the US have long been deeply shaped by race, gender, and sexuality. -
Restorative Versus Retributive Justice Kathleen Daly Reviews the Discourse That Has Framed Restorative Justice As the Antidote to Punishment
Restorative versus Retributive Justice Kathleen Daly reviews the discourse that has framed restorative justice as the antidote to punishment. n 'Restorative justice: the real story' (Punishment and Advocates seem to assume that an ideal justice system should Society 2002), Kathleen Daly draws on her experience of be of one type only, that it should be pure and not contaminated / restorative justice conferencing and an extensive survey of by or mixed with others. [Even when calling for the need to academic literature to refute four myths that she says have "blend restorative, reparative, and transformative justice... with grown up around restorative justice. These are that: (1) the prosecution of paradigmatic violations of human rights", restorative justice is the opposite of retributive justice; (2) Drambl (2000:296) is unable to avoid using the term 'retributive' restorative justice uses indigenous justice practices and was to refer to responses that should be reserved for the few.] the dominant form ofpre-modern justice; (3) restorative justice Before demonstrating the problems with this position, I give a is a 'care' (or feminine) response to crime in comparison to a sympathetic reading of what I think advocates are trying to say. justice' (or masculine) response; and (4) restorative justice Mead's (1917-18) 'The Psychology of Punitive Justice' can be expected to produce major changes in people. She says contrasts two methods of responding to crime. One he termed that "simple oppositional dualisms are inadequate in depicting"the attitude of hostility toward the lawbreaker" (p. 227), which criminal justice, even in an ideal justice system", and argues "brings with it the attitudes of retribution, repression, and for a 'real story' which would serve the political future of exclusion" (pp. -
Ictj Briefing
ictj briefing Virginie Ladisch Anna Myriam Roccatello The Color of Justice April 2021 Transitional Justice and the Legacy of Slavery and Racism in the United States The murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in the spring of 2020 at the hands of police have set off a wave of national and international protests demanding that the United States (US) confront its unaddressed legacy of slavery and racial discrimination, manifest in persistent social and economic inequality.1 Compared with previous protest movements in the US, this time, it seems more attention is being paid to the historical roots of the grievances being voiced. Only a few years ago, following the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, protests broke out calling for an array of reforms, such as body cameras and greater accountability for individual police officers. However, across the country, the continued violence against Black people by police highlights that this is not a problem of individuals. It is rather a pervasive and systemic problem that began before the nation’s founding and has been a constant through line in US history from the early colonial period to the present. This history includes the CONTENTS genocide of Native Americans, the enslavement of African Americans, and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Putting an end to this continuing legacy requires an equally systemic response. A Time for Global Inspiration 2 Acknowledgment and Truth To understand what conditions led to the murder of George Floyd, and so many others Seeking 3 before him and since, it is important to analyze the past and put current grievances in Steps Toward Repair 8 historical perspective. -
Reading & Discussion Guide for We Do This 'Til We Free Us
Reading & Discussion Guide We Do This ’Til We Free Us Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice by Mariame Kaba “No matter where and how you enter the conversation, We Do This ʼTil We Free Us brings all of us infinitely closer to creating a world premised on genuine and lasting safety, justice, and peace.” — Andrea J. Ritchie Guided Reading & Discussion Questions 1. What is your personal definition of safety? How might your definition of safety differ from other peoples’ definitions of safety? Why do many people equate safety with policing? What are some of the messages—in the media, in popular culture, and in your community—that have contributed to the idea that prisons, police, and surveillance contribute to safety? 2. What is the purpose of prisons and jails as they currently operate? What are some ways that prisons and jails have failed to prevent, reduce, or transform harm within your community? Do you believe that it is possible to reform the prison industrial complex? Why or why not? Have you seen any evidence that reform will address the inhumanity and harms of the prison industrial complex? 3. Have you ever had an experience calling the police? Are there existing resources within your community that could serve as alternatives to involving the police? Are those resources sufficiently supported, funded, and staffed? If not, what actions could you take to build greater support for alternatives to the police within your community? 4. Why does abolition require creative and collaborative imagination and action? How can cultivating intentional relationships and participating in collectives help us to imagine new worlds? What intentional relationships would you like to nurture or build? As you participate in this work, what are some ways that you would like to transform as an individual? We Do This ʻTil We Free Us | Reading & Discussion Guide 5. -
Prison Abolition and Grounded Justice
Georgetown University Law Center Scholarship @ GEORGETOWN LAW 2015 Prison Abolition and Grounded Justice Allegra M. McLeod Georgetown University Law Center, [email protected] This paper can be downloaded free of charge from: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/1490 http://ssrn.com/abstract=2625217 62 UCLA L. Rev. 1156-1239 (2015) This open-access article is brought to you by the Georgetown Law Library. Posted with permission of the author. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub Part of the Criminal Law Commons, Criminal Procedure Commons, Criminology Commons, and the Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons Prison Abolition and Grounded Justice Allegra M. McLeod EVIEW R ABSTRACT This Article introduces to legal scholarship the first sustained discussion of prison LA LAW LA LAW C abolition and what I will call a “prison abolitionist ethic.” Prisons and punitive policing U produce tremendous brutality, violence, racial stratification, ideological rigidity, despair, and waste. Meanwhile, incarceration and prison-backed policing neither redress nor repair the very sorts of harms they are supposed to address—interpersonal violence, addiction, mental illness, and sexual abuse, among others. Yet despite persistent and increasing recognition of the deep problems that attend U.S. incarceration and prison- backed policing, criminal law scholarship has largely failed to consider how the goals of criminal law—principally deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, and retributive justice—might be pursued by means entirely apart from criminal law enforcement. Abandoning prison-backed punishment and punitive policing remains generally unfathomable. This Article argues that the general reluctance to engage seriously an abolitionist framework represents a failure of moral, legal, and political imagination. -
Police Prosecutions and Punitive Instincts
Washington University Law Review Volume 98 Issue 4 2021 Police Prosecutions and Punitive Instincts Kate Levine Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview Part of the Criminal Law Commons, Law and Race Commons, and the Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons Recommended Citation Kate Levine, Police Prosecutions and Punitive Instincts, 98 WASH. U. L. REV. 0997 (2021). Available at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview/vol98/iss4/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington University Law Review by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Washington University Law Review VOLUME 98 NUMBER 4 2021 POLICE PROSECUTIONS AND PUNITIVE INSTINCTS KATE LEVINE* ABSTRACT This Article makes two contributions to the fields of policing and criminal legal scholarship. First, it sounds a cautionary note about the use of individual prosecutions to remedy police brutality. It argues that the calls for ways to ease the path to more police prosecutions from legal scholars, reformers, and advocates who, at the same time, advocate for a dramatic reduction of the criminal legal system’s footprint, are deeply problematic. It shows that police prosecutions legitimize the criminal legal system while at the same time displaying the same racism and ineffectiveness that have been shown to pervade our prison-backed criminal machinery. The Article looks at three recent trials and convictions of police officers of color, Peter Liang, Mohammed Noor, and Nouman Raja, in order to underscore the argument that the criminal legal system’s race problems are * Associate Professor of Law, Benjamin N. -
Deterrence Daniel S
Deterrence Daniel S. Nagin* The criminal justice system in a democratic society serves many vital social purposes. Among the most important is deterring crime. Going back to the pioneering work of the Enlightenment philosopher Cesare Beccaria, deterrence theorists have distinguished between the certainty and severity of punishment. Conventional wisdom, backed by considerable research evidence, is that the certainty of punishment, not its severity, is the more effective deterrent. Recent reviews of that evidence has led me to a refinement of the certainty principle—it is the certainty of apprehension not the severity of the ensuing consequences that is the more effective deterrent. This conclusion has several important implications for policy. First, it calls into question the effectiveness of over four decades of U.S. crime-control policy predicated on the premise that lengthy prison sentences are an effective deterrent to crime. Second, according to the revised certainty principle, crime-prevention policy should instead focus on bolstering the certainty of apprehension. Such policies mostly involve increasing police numbers or better use of the police by their strategic deployment in ways that heighten their presence in high- crime areas and/or reduce criminal opportunities at such places. INTRODUCTION The criminal justice system in a democratic society serves many vital social purposes. Among the most important is preventing crime. The system’s activities may prevent crime by three mechanisms. One is incapacitation.1 Convicted offenders are often punished with imprisonment. Incapacitation refers to the crimes averted by their physical isolation during the period of their incarceration. Two other mechanisms involve possible behavioral responses. -
Introduction to Criminology
PART 1 © Nevarpp/iStockphoto/Getty Images Introduction to Criminology CHAPTER 1 Crime and Criminology. 3 CHAPTER 2 The Incidence of Crime . 35 1 © Tithi Luadthong/Shutterstock CHAPTER 1 Crime and Criminology Crime and the fear of crime have permeated the fabric of American life. —Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court1 Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd. —Bertrand Russell2 OBJECTIVES • Define criminology, and understand how this field of study relates to other social science disciplines. Pg. 4 • Understand the meaning of scientific theory and its relationship to research and policy. Pg. 8 • Recognize how the media shape public perceptions of crime. Pg. 19 • Know the criteria for establishing causation, and identify the attributes of good research. Pg. 13 • Understand the politics of criminology and the importance of social context. Pg. 18 • Define criminal law, and understand the conflict and consensus perspectives on the law. Pg. 5 • Describe the various schools of criminological theory and the explanations that they provide. Pg. 9 of the public’s concern about the safety of their com- Introduction munities, crime is a perennial political issue that can- Crime is a social phenomenon that commands the didates for political office are compelled to address. attention and energy of the American public. When Dealing with crime commands a substantial por- crime statistics are announced or a particular crime tion of the country’s tax dollars. Criminal justice sys- goes viral, the public demands that “something be tem operations (police, courts, prisons) cost American done.” American citizens are concerned about their taxpayers over $270 billion annually. -
Defining Purpose in Deterrence-Based Correctional Programs Cecelia Klingele
University of Minnesota Law School Scholarship Repository Minnesota Law Review 2015 What Are We Hoping For? Defining Purpose in Deterrence-Based Correctional Programs Cecelia Klingele Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/mlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Klingele, Cecelia, "What Are We Hoping For? Defining Purpose in Deterrence-Based Correctional Programs" (2015). Minnesota Law Review. 265. https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/mlr/265 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Minnesota Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Minnesota Law Review collection by an authorized administrator of the Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Essay What Are We Hoping For? Defining Purpose in Deterrence-Based Correctional Programs Cecelia Klingele† INTRODUCTION Probation has long offered individuals convicted of crime a way to avoid the deleterious effects of incarceration and remain in the community, bound by conditions designed to help them develop the routines and skills essential to a law-abiding life. The ultimate goal of probation is to promote desistance, the process by which a person formerly engaged in criminal offend- ing moves to a place of “long-term abstinence from crime.”1 This process of “making good” is often difficult, requiring a proba- tioner to abandon the habits and influences that have enabled criminal behavior and to develop law-abiding norms and prosocial relationships.2 Although probation historically involved close mentoring and monitoring by probation officers,3 growing caseloads and resource constraints often result in lax supervision and uneven enforcement of the conditions of supervision.4 As a result, in † Assistant Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin Law School. -
From Restorative Justice to Transformative Justice Discussion
From Restorative Justice to Transformative Justice Discussion Paper Law Commission of Canada Catalogue No. JL2-6/1999 ISBN 0-662-64363-1 Canada Preface The Law Commission of Canada has identified Social Relationships as one of its key research themes. As society becomes more diverse, Canadians are increasingly seeing themselves not just as individuals, but as members of groups. Yet much of our law continues to be based on the assumption that only individuals matter. This is most evident in the way it addresses interpersonal relationships that give rise to conflict. Traditionally, judicial procedures have presumed that the goal of litigation is to discern the facts that relate to a particular situation of conflict, and then to identify the law that applies to these facts. The adjudicative process is two-sided, adversarial and backward looking. It works to produce winners and losers. Many of our most important societal issues can be only imperfectly forced into this model. Frequently, there are multiple parties to a conflict. The issues that divide parties are often not two- sided, but are multi-sided. And the remedies sought by persons in conflict are not necessarily just the reparation of some harm or the restoration of a previous situation; often they seek the transformation of a relationship gone sour. The limits of the criminal and the civil law in responding to conflict have been well worked over by scholars and commentators. This is especially true in relation to the criminal law. A great deal of effort has been devoted to finding alternatives to punishment and incarceration as a way of rehabilitating offenders. -
Prison Conditions, Capital Punishment, and Deterrence
Prison Conditions, Capital Punishment, and Deterrence Lawrence Katz, Harvard University and National Bureau of Economic Research, Steven D. Levitt, University of Chicago and American Bar Foundation, and Ellen Shustorovich, City University of New York Previous research has attempted to identify a deterrent effect of capital punishment. We argue that the quality of life in prison is likely to have a greater impact on criminal behavior than the death penalty. Using state-level panel data covering the period 1950±90, we demonstrate that the death rate among prisoners (the best available proxy for prison conditions) is negatively correlated with crime rates, consistent with deterrence. This finding is shown to be quite robust. In contrast, there is little systematic evidence that the execution rate influences crime rates in this time period. 1. Introduction For more than two decades the deterrent effect of capital punishment has been the subject of spirited academic debate. Following Ehrlich (1975), a number of studies have found evidence supporting a deterrent effect of the death penalty (Cloninger, 1977; Deadman and Pyle, 1989; Ehrlich, 1977; Ehrlich and Liu, 1999; Layson, 1985; Mocan and Gittings, 2001). A far larger set of studies have failed to ®nd deterrent effects of capital punishment (e.g., Avio, 1979, 1988; Bailey, 1982; Cheatwood, 1993; Forst, Filatov, and Klein, 1978; Grogger, 1990; Leamer, 1983; Passell and Taylor, 1977).1 Although only one small piece of the broader literature on the issue of We would like to thank Austan Goolsbee for comments and criticisms. The National Science Foundation provided ®nancial support. Send correspondence to: Steven Levitt, Department of Economics, University of Chicago, 1126 E.