The Political Roots of Racial Tracking in American Criminal Justice
Cambridge University Press, 1/26/2015
EAN 9781107654884, ISBN10: 1107654882
Paperback, 406 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm
Language: English
The race problem in the American criminal justice system persists because we enable it. The tendency of liberals to point a finger at law enforcement, racial conservatives, the War on Drugs, is misguided. Black as well as white voters, Democrat as much as Republican lawmakers, President Obama as much as Reagan, both Congress and the Supreme Court alike; all are implicated. We all are 'The Man'. Whether the problem is defined in terms of blacks' overrepresentation in prisons or in terms of the disproportional use of deadly police force against blacks, not enough of us demand that something be done. The Political Roots of Racial Tracking in American Criminal Justice is the story of how the race problem in criminal justice is continually enabled in the national crime policy process, and why.
1. Racial tracking
two law-enforcement modes
2. Policy process theory of racial tracking
an overview
3. A color-blind problem
the US Supreme Court and racial influences in law enforcement
4. Opportunities for change
the racial justice agenda in Congress
5. Congress as power player
racial justice versus 'law and order'
6. The politics principle and the party playbook
7. Public mind-set
what Americans believe about race, crime, and criminal justice disparities
8. Reasons to believe
options concerning race, crime, and justice.