No Justice, No Peace: Political Science Perspectives on the American Carceral State

Abstract

This essay explores four key dimensions of political science literature on the U.S. criminal legal system, by way of introducing articles in the special issue on criminal justice featured in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Politics. We situate police as an institution of social control, rather than providing safety for people vulnerable to crime. The vast array of policy tools to surveil, track, and detain citizens, which lack commensurate restraints on their application, amount to a finely tuned carceral machine that can be deployed against groups newly identified as deviant. We therefore turn attention to this dynamic with our second theme: the criminalization of immigrants, the expansion of interior immigration enforcement, and the consequent targeting of Latinx people. We likewise discuss lessons for reform that can be drawn from research on representation and the political socialization that occurs as a consequence of involuntary contact with the system. We conclude with a brief discussion of directions for future research. The criminal legal system is a key force for persistent racial and class inequality. By turning attention to the politics of the criminal legal system, we forward a critical and understudied facet of American political life that intersects with all corners of the discipline.

Assumptions of immigration status: A moderated mediation analysis of racial microaggressions and internalization impacting latinx and asian college students

“…As previously mentioned, assumptions of immigration status, also include assumptions of criminality (e.g., unlawful presence; Barrita 2021 ). Previous findings have suggested Latinx and Black people are consistently racialized as criminals more frequently than other groups (Harris et al, 2020 ). Therefore, it is possible that Latinx people who are seen as socially inferior and foreigner (Zou & Cheryan, 2017 ), can be criminalized as undocumented immigrants more often than Asian people; thus, experiencing more immigration status microaggressions.…”

Utilization of Forensic Evidence in the Criminal Justice System

“…The criminal justice system is often described as the institutions responsible for enforcing criminal law, including the legislature, the police, the courts, and the correctional system [26]. The overall picture of the criminal justice system reflects a system with three separate functions: police, courts and penitentiaries [27][28][29].…”

Decolonizing Research on the Carceral in Canadian Political Science

“…That said, the even the American carceral state is identified as overlooked in American political science (Gottschalk, 2008). In recent years, American political scientists have introduced new questions, focusing on how carceral institutions shape individuals’ relationship with the state (Harris et al, 2020), work that Canadian political science can better contribute to regarding the Canadian case study. Synthesizing the American political science literature on the carceral state, Allison Harris and colleagues (2020) and Joe Soss and Vesla Weaver (2017) identify key dimensions, including expansion of the carceral state at the national, regional and local levels (also see Gottschalk, 2015); the impacts of mass incarceration for community well-being, economic stratification, and social inequality and mobility (also see Thorpe, 2015); police as a public interest group and institution of social control (also see Soss and Weaver, 2017); criminalization of immigrants, including structures of immigration policing and confinement (also see Walker et al, 2020); political disenfranchisement of groups targeted by carceral institutions (also see White, 2019); political socialization of groups targeted by or aware of the impacts of carceral institutions; and political discourses of crime, policing and punishment (also see Weaver et al, 2020).…”