Race and Crime - by Elizabeth Brown & George Barganier (Paperback)

About the Book

"Race and Crime examines how and why racialized mass incarceration emerged as a new racial management strategy in the United States and explores its impact on the institutions of criminal justice. Elizabeth Brown and George Barganier historicize the issues of race and crime in society by returning to the history of colonial conquest and the emergence of the idea of race. They show how this idea transitions and transforms throughout history and affects the creation of state power, the emergence of new state institutions, and geographies of racial segregation. Finally, they analyze how punishment, the death penalty, and everyday practices of surveillance practiced in and through the police and courts shape the geographical expression of injustice in the United States today."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Criminal justice practices such as policing and imprisonment are integral to the creation of racialized experiences in U.S. society. Race as an important category of difference, however, did not arise here with the criminal justice system but rather with the advent of European colonial conquest and the birth of the U.S. racial state. Race and Crime examines how race became a defining feature of the system and why mass incarceration emerged as a new racial management strategy. This book reviews the history of race and criminology and explores the impact of racist colonial legacies on the organization of criminal justice institutions. Using a macrostructural perspective, students will learn to contextualize issues of race, crime, and criminal justice.

Topics include:

• How "coloniality" explains the practices that reproduce racial hierarchies
• The birth of social science and social programs from the legacies of racial science
• The defining role of geography and geographical conquest in the continuation of mass incarceration
• The emergence of the logics of crime control, the War on Drugs, the redefinition of federal law enforcement, and the reallocation of state resources toward prison building, policing, and incarceration
• How policing, courts, and punishment perpetuate the colonial order through their institutional structures and policies

Race and Crime will help students understand how everyday practices of punishment and surveillance are employed in and through the police, courts, and community to create and shape the geographies of injustice in the United States today.

From the Back Cover

"If you want a book that best describes the connection between race, class, and urban space with crime and the criminal justice system, this is it!"--Randall G. Shelden, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

"If you're looking for a thoughtful, in-depth analysis of race, place and crime from a critical and historical perspective, this book will deliver."--Allison Foley, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, Augusta University

About the Author

Elizabeth Brown is Professor of Criminal Justice Studies in the School of Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at San Francisco State University.
George Barganier is Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Studies in the School of Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at San Francisco State University.