Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Capitalism And Criminal Justice, Peter Kraska, John Brent

Peter Kraska

Capitalism and Criminal Justice examines how state and economic forces work together through a dialectic process in efforts to prepare social and cultural capital for economic accumulation. This unique book demonstrates the close working relationship between the state and market by focusing on two recent trends: the emergence of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (cage-fighting) and the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). These trends are examined as illustrative of the state/market nexus in sanctioning and criminalizing transgressive behaviors. The books aims to both deepen criminology’s understanding of the criminalization/legalization process, and introduce a genre of theoretical work not often employed …

Felon Disenfranchisement The Judiciary’S Role In Renegotiating Racial Divisions, Brian Schaefer, Peter Kraska

Peter Kraska

Felon disenfranchisement is deeply rooted in U.S. history as a form of punishment and as a tool to inhibit African Americans from voting. Today, there are 5.3 million U.S.

residents politically disenfranchised due to a felony conviction—about 2 million of whom are African Americans. The overrepresentation of African Americans disenfranchised, and the U.S. history of racism, brings forth the question of how these laws continue to exist. The objective of this study is to demonstrate, through a socio–legal approach, the federal court system’s role in perpetuating and maintaining the ethnoracial divisions in society through the validation and rationalization of felon …

Criminal Justice And Criminology Research Methods, Peter Kraska, W. Neuman

Peter Kraska

A rigorous yet engaging text that offers balanced coverage of contemporary research methods. Filled with criminal justice and criminology examples, it demonstrates how research is relevant to the field and what tools are needed to actually conduct that research. Streamlined in this edition, it offers distinct coverage of qualitative research and quantitative research. With its real-life examples and cutting-edge content, the text goes beyond the nuts and bolts to teach students how to competently critique as well as create research-based knowledge.

Moving Beyond Our Methodological Default: A Case For Mixed Methods, John Brent, Peter Kraska

Peter Kraska

Within criminal justice/criminology exists a host of available research methods that generally default along qualitative and quantitative lines. Studying crime and justice phenomena, then, generally involves choosing one approach or the other. Although this binary tradition of qualitative vs. quantitative has predominated, our field's methodological infrastructure has recently demonstrated a willingness to adopt more inclusive practices. The purpose of this study is to discuss the nascent yet probable transformation of re-orienting our field toward a new paradigm of inclusiveness that acknowledges the use of mixed methods research as being both legitimate and beneficial. This paper examines the role methodological exclusivism …

Trafficking In Bodily Perfection: Examining The Late‐Modern Steroid Marketplace And Its Criminalization, Peter Kraska, Charles Bussard, John Brent

Peter Kraska

Illicit steroid and human growth hormone use by professional athletes has received significant media and political attention in the last five years. The resulting political pressure has compelled federal law enforcement to prosecute serious new control initiatives. To date, no academic research inquiring into the nature of this illicit industry exists. This study fills this void through the mixed methods approach—employing both ethnographic field research and quantitative content analysis. The ethnographic data demonstrate a fascinating late‐modern trafficking scheme where the central informant established an apartment‐based manufacturing operation, converting raw steroid chemical compounds ordered off the Internet into injectable solutions. Content …

Criminal Justice Theory: Toward Legitimacy And An Infrastructure, Peter Kraska

Peter Kraska

Within Criminal Justice/Criminology, “theory” is generally assumed to be concerned with crime and crime rates. Studying criminal justice is tacitly, and sometimes explicitly, relegated to the narrow role of evaluative and descriptive scholarship. This article explores the reasons for our field’s failure to recognize the importance of developing an accessible and well‐recognized theoretical infrastructure not about crime, but criminal justice and crime control phenomena. It examines the complexity of our object of study when theorizing criminal justice and the efficacy of organizing criminal justice theory using multiple “theoretical orientations.” The conclusion stresses the essentiality of criminal justice theory, with particular …