Law Commons^™

Vulnerable, Not Voiceless: Outsider Narrative In Advocacy Against Discriminatory Policing, Nicole Smith Futrell

Publications and Research

Activists and lawyers advocating for those who are targeted, arrested, and prosecuted as a result of aggressive policing practices are often the first to hear individual accounts of the dehumanizing treatment endured by vulnerable communities. Working on the front lines of the criminal justice system on a daily basis may cause advocates to regard these descriptions as commonplace, such that the transformative potential of a shared personal experience is overlooked. Critical race, practice-oriented, and narrative theory scholarship have long recognized the power of telling one’s story. These disciplines have explored how outsider narrative, or the articulated experience of groups subordinated …