Crack Pipes and Policing: A Case Study of Institutional Racism and Remedial Action in Cleveland

Abstract

This article uses a case study of selective drug law enforcement in Cleveland, Ohio, to explore the contours of institutional racism in criminal justice policy and practice. Using the multilevel theoretical framework developed by Ian Haney López (2000) that highlights the processes underlying how institutional racism is manifested, I analyze how and why racially discriminatory arrest and charging practices were able to persist in this case as well as how they were eventually reformed. In doing so, I explore the role of institutional empathy (and its withholding) in institutional racism and illustrate how the exploitation of empathy can be used strategically to effect policy change.

Examining Racial Disparities in Drug Arrests

“…It is important to note that many scholars contend that the War on Drugs is an example of institutional racism (e.g. Duster, 1997;Provine, 2007;Lynch, 2011). For instance, Lynch (2011), using Haney López's (2000 conceptualization of institutional racism, argues that the War on Drugs is a manifestation of institutional racism in that the War on Drugs' policies and tactics are affected by widely shared negative stereotypes of African-Americans as drug offenders.…”

Producing race disparities: A study of drug arrests across place and race*

“…Scholars have underscored a constellation of legal, organizational, political, individual, contextual, situational, and ecological factors that shape drug law enforcement and the race disparities it produces (Beckett, Nyrop, & Pfingst, ; Beckett, Nyrop, Pfingst, & Bowen, ; Eitle & Monahan, ; Engel, Smith, & Cullen, ; Lynch, , ; Lynch, Omori, Roussell, & Valasik, ; Mitchell, ; Mitchell & Lynch, ; Parker & Maggard, ; Parker et al., ; Tonry & Melewski, ). Many law enforcement agents and scholars have asserted that these factors are nonracial, contending that racially disparate policing represents officers’ reasonable, nondiscriminatory responses to legitimate factors disproportionately found in neighborhoods of color, such as high violent crime, disorder, economic disadvantage, and calls for service (Bratton & Knobler, ; Engel et al., ; Kelling & Coles, ; Wilson & Kelling, ).…”

“…An example is a long history of racialized crack cocaine laws generated by the propaganda of public officials and other claims‐makers. Rather than targeting all drugs, federal, state, and local lawmakers have selectively targeted crack cocaine—a drug that disproportionately involves Black users and sellers—by funding aggressive drug policing, imposing mandatory minimum sentences for simple crack possession, and imposing harsher penalties for crack cocaine, despite the prevalence of other drugs (Beckett et al., , ; Lynch, , ; Provine, ). Relatedly, findings from prior studies suggest that drug policing cannot be justified by rational policy decisions or the spatial distribution of drug or violent crimes (Beckett et al., ; Geller & Fagan, ; Lynch, ).…”

Mass incarceration, legal change, and locale

“…Thus, strategies that challenge locally elected criminal justice actors—particularly prosecutors—to pursue more balanced and policy‐effective approaches in their responses to crime have a great deal of potential to make many small dents in the huge mass incarceration machine. As I have argued elsewhere (Lynch, 2011), local community‐based strategies offer several advantages. Community‐based reform efforts invite a cooperative and collaborative, rather than an adversarial, mode of resolution that can be defined rhetorically as inclusive of the interests of all in the community.…”

“…Finally, a local action strategy can highlight the “we” of community in its articulation of the need for reform by highlighting how the failures of the status quo policy harm community members. This strategy allows advocates for change to frame group identity as inclusive and diverse as well as made up of the entire community, and can facilitate empathy for those harmed by punitive policies and practices (Lynch, 2011). Consequently, empathy also can lead to increased strength and cohesion in social‐change efforts through the reconfiguring of group boundaries.…”