Law and Race Commons^™

Thusi Selected As John Hope Franklin Prize Recipient, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

The Law and Society Association will honor an Indiana University Maurer School of Law professor this week at its 2024 Annual Meeting in Denver from June 6-9.

Professor India Thusi will receive the John Hope Franklin Prize, recognizing exceptional scholarship in the field of Race, Racism and the Law.

Thusi’s winning work, “The Racialized History of Vice Policing,” was published in the UCLA Law Review in 2023.

“The article provides an enduring scholarly contribution at the intersection of policing, abolition, and legal history,” according to the LSA. “Thusi adopts an abolitionist framework and provides a much-needed analysis of vice policing …

Examining Deshaney: Child Abuse, Due Process, And State-Sanctioned Violence, Anabelle Tolgyesi

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

No abstract provided.

Racial And Gender Bias In Child Maltreatment Reporting Decisions: Results Of A Randomized Vignette Experiment, Ian Ayres, Sonia Qin, Pranjal Drall

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

In this randomized vignette experiment, we asked 4,000 respondents through a YouGov survey to decide how likely they would be to report potential instances of child maltreatment to authorities. We used racialized and gendered names to suggest the identities of the parents and children in each of the ten vignettes that were based on real-life events. We find that respondents were less likely to report potential child maltreatment when the vignette used non-white names to describe the family participants. Respondents were less likely to report when a male child was involved, and more likely to report when a male parent …

Radical Visions For The Law Of Peace: How W.E.B. Du Bois And The Black Antiwar Movement Reimagined Civil Rights And The Laws Of War And Peace, Andrew J. Lanham

Washington Law Review

This Article reconstructs the history of Black antiwar activism in the twentieth-century United States and argues that Black antiwar activists played a significant but largely forgotten role in the development of both modern civil rights law and the international law of war and peace. The Article focuses on the career of W.E.B. Du Bois, tracing how he built coalitions between civil rights and antiwar organizations to pursue a series of shared legal campaigns. Du Bois’s antiwar work was also representative of a larger tradition, and his career illuminates how a range of Black activists and civil rights lawyers like Pauli …

Redistributing Justice, Benjamin Levin, Kate Levine

Articles

This Essay surfaces an obstacle to decarceration hiding in plain sight: progressives’ continued support for the carceral system. Despite progressives’ increasingly prevalent critiques of criminal law, there is hardly a consensus on the left in opposition to the carceral state. Many left-leaning academics and activists who may critique the criminal system writ large remain enthusiastic about criminal law in certain areas— often areas in which defendants are imagined as powerful and victims as particularly vulnerable.

In this Essay, we offer a novel theory for what animates the seemingly conflicted attitude among progressives toward criminal punishment—the hope that the criminal system …

Editorial Forward, Executive Board

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

No abstract provided.

Breaking Bias: A Singular Chapter Solution For Racial Equity In Consumer Bankruptcy, Jerron Wheeler

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

This article explores the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, revealing a looming medical debt crisis among Black families, while examining the intersection of racial bias, attorney practices, and the existing two-chapter consumer bankruptcy system. Proposing a solution, the article advocates for the consolidation of Chapters 7 and 13 into a single chapter, citing the Consumer Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2020 (CBRA) as a potential remedy. Further, this article argues that a single chapter would simplify the bankruptcy process, reducing the influence of attorney bias and promoting uniform eligibility criteria. This approach aims to make debt relief more accessible, especially for …

Masthead

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

No abstract provided.

Struggle Against The Water: Connecting Fair Housing Law And Climatejustice, Jade A. Craig

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

We Cannot Police Systemic Racism And Systemic Poverty: Why Policing Is Not A Solution To Our Public Health Crisis, Semir Bulle

Utah Law Review

From drug addiction to issues with homelessness, the mental health crisis, community disputes, traffic violations and more, there does not seem to be any evidence that increased police budgets and spending are the best use of limited resources. Criminalization in substitution for measured and targeted interventions has not worked in structurally vulnerable and marginalized communities and it is far past the time to accept tangible alternatives, such as funding initiatives like TCCS. Instead of perpetually increasing our police budget, let’s instead invest in healing our communities. Let’s invest this money in education, recreation, childcare, housing, health; measures that are proven …

Critical Race Theory Bans And The Changing Canon: Cultural Appropriation In Narrative, Susan Ayres

Faculty Scholarship

Thirty-five states have enacted critical race theory bans at the level of elementary and secondary public education, and seven states have extended these to the university level. One way to resist these attempts to repress a healthy democracy by whitewashing history is through a pedagogy of antiracism, including literary works. The question of what that would look like involves questions of cultural appropriation, which occurs when one takes from another culture, such as a writer creating a narrative about a character outside of the writer’s cultural identity. This Article considers the story of Ota Benga, brought from the Congo to …

Legally Sanctioned Takings Of Black Children: How Slavery Reverberates In The Modern Child Welfare System, Abigail Mitchell

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

This article explores the link between the taking of Black children from their families perpetrated as part of American slavery and modern takings in the modern family policing system. This article posits that underpinning both systems is a pervasive paternalism that purports to be benevolent but has been weaponized to systematically traumatize Black children and villainize Black parents. This article takes a sweeping historical perspective and connects the same discourse used to justify slavery to that which has permeated the modern family policing system.

Community Policing And Meta-Stereotypes: Improving Citizenry-Police Relations In A Large, Multicultural Urban Area, Through A Participatory Action Research Community Safety Workshop, Cornelius Darnell Davis

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

The Term Policing and its surrounding themes are complex and deserve adequate attention. Since the early 1900’s, citizenry and police have had mistrustful relationships. Over the span of three eras, both positive and negative citizenry-police relations have been highlighted. In more recent years, the timely capturing of videos of over-policing and excessive use of deadly force incidents (mainly in BIPOC communities) have exacerbated negative citizenry-police relations, resulting in the lack of procedural justice and police legitimacy. Excessive policing and the seemingly constant deaths of unarmed African Americans undoubtedly contribute to the lack of confidence in police to effectively ensure all …

Leading The Way: The Ninth Circuit Orders Reconsideration Of Lead-Based Paint Hazard Regulations In A Community Voice V. Environmental Protection Agency, Bae-Corine Schulz

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Police Identity And The Role Of Media In A Contemporary Society: A Look At The Personal And Professional Effect On Law Enforcement, Nedra Lachelle Jones

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Abstract This research study examined the impact of media on law enforcement and the secondary impact of this media on the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve. In addition, the study examined whether those perceptions influence police and community interactions and/or behaviors on the daily basis. This study describes the perceptions of police officers both professionally and personally as it relates to media coverage and the changing of their normal police tactics. The specific events that were focused on in this study included the shooting of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri in August of 2014, …

Should Racially Vulnerable Victims Show Mercy?, Ekow N. Yankah

Articles

On June 17, 2015, twenty-one-year-old Dylann Roof entered the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, sat, and prayed with nine congregants for at least an hour before pulling out a handgun and killing Cynthia Hurd, Susan Jackson, Ethel Lance, DePayne Middleton-Doctor, State Senator Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Tywanza Sanders, Rev. Daniel Simmons, Sharonda Singleton, and Myra Thompson.' He left three survivors, explicitly so they could "tell the story" of his killings. Roof did so for his own demented reasons; his racist rage was laid out publicly in an online manifesto, and he hoped his murders would begin a …

Deconstructing Drugs: Addressing The Stigma, Harm Reduction, And Policy Solutions, Charlotte Theriault

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Black and homeless people who struggle with substance use disorder (SUD), especially opioid use disorder (OUD), have experienced unique obstacles due to inequalities relating to their social determinants of health (SDOH). Historical context and peer-reviewed research were used to evaluate racial bias and expand upon the factors that contributed to the opioid crisis, the effects of COVID-19 on drug overdoses, and the presence of fentanyl in illicit drug supplies. Various studies combat the stigma surrounding substance use disorder (SUD) by acknowledging the disease as a chronic health condition. Research showed that the most effective way to combat these inequalities and …

Contracting For Social Change, Adam N. Eckart

University of Miami Business Law Review

Throughout history, social change has often been shaped by high profile legislation and through high-stakes litigation. But social change can also be spurred on through private contract, including through the agreements businesses and individuals make with each other every day. Transactional attorneys can promote social change through drafting techniques and choices, including narrative and storytelling techniques, and can use such drafting techniques in order to 1) write better and more complete agreements that are more consistent with business-led social activism already taking place, and 2) influence society by forcing counterparties to evolve on social issues, change industry practice, or foster …

Board Diversity Is Here To Stay: Extrajudicial Avenues, Maryann Lennon

University of Miami Business Law Review

Board diversity laws have become a focus of corporations, lawmakers, and courts across the country as constitutional challenges to the policies continue to be raised. California is one of the first states to implement statutes relating to board diversity requirements for publicly held corporations within the state. Nasdaq has followed in similar footsteps, implementing new rules that require a certain number of diverse members on boards for companies listed on the exchanges or a statement explaining a lack thereof. Supporters of the board diversity laws may want to lean on arguments made upholding affirmative action policies within the university system. …

Addressing Mental Health In Young Adults: A Modern Approach Compared To Previous Generations, Breeha A. Shah

DePaul Journal of Health Care Law

The escalating prevalence of mental health issues among today's young adults underscores the vital importance of addressing mental health in the pursuit of public health objectives. In response to this, The House Education and Labor Committee issued a report on the Mental Health Services for Students Act of 2020 (the Act), to amend the Public Health Service Act relating to school children. This revision seeks to bolster the support for students and young people by ensuring their access to comprehensive mental health programs within the school environment. The Act recognizes that safeguarding mental health is an immediate concern for public …