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Full-Text Articles in Sociology

"With All The Majesty Of The Law": Systemic Racism, Punitive Sentiment, And Equal Protection, Darren L. Hutchinson Jan 2022

"With All The Majesty Of The Law": Systemic Racism, Punitive Sentiment, And Equal Protection, Darren L. Hutchinson

Faculty Articles

United States criminal justice policies have played a central role in the subjugation of persons of color. Under slavery, criminal law explicitly provided a means to ensure White dominion over Blacks and require Black submission to White authority. During Reconstruction, anticrime policies served to maintain White supremacy and re-enslave Blacks, both through explicit discrimination and facially neutral policies. Similar practices maintained racial hierarchy with respect to White, Latinx, and Asian-American populations in the western United States. While most state action no longer explicitly discriminates on the basis of race, anticrime policy remains a powerful instrument of racial subordination. Indeed, social …


What Factors In The Life Experience Of African Americans Cause Them To Comply With Or Confront Law Enforcement Officers?, La'shelle Jefferson-Mcdonald Jan 2022

What Factors In The Life Experience Of African Americans Cause Them To Comply With Or Confront Law Enforcement Officers?, La'shelle Jefferson-Mcdonald

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Widespread availability of cell phones has given most Americans the ability to record events as they happen. This has included recordings of increasing instances of police brutality directed at African Americans by White officers, including the shooting and killing of unarmed People of Color, particularly males. With such encounters being recorded and widely viewed by the general population, there is an increased need to focus on stopping this serious social problem. This study gives historical context on how this came about, what common stereotypes are associated with African Americans, and examples of several cases where unarmed African Americans were killed …