The Political Roots of Racial Tracking in American Criminal Justice [Paperback]

This book examines the role of the public and policy makers in enabling the race problem in the American criminal justice system.The Political Roots of Racial Tracking in American Criminal Justice examines the role played by the public and by policy makers in enabling the race problem in the American criminal justice system. It illustrates how the problem consists of not only the much-talked-about overrepresentation of blacks in prisons but also the harsher and less sympathetic treatment of blacks (as compared to whites) throughout the entire criminal process.The Political Roots of Racial Tracking in American Criminal Justice examines the role played by the public and by policy makers in enabling the race problem in the American criminal justice system. It illustrates how the problem consists of not only the much-talked-about overrepresentation of blacks in prisons but also the harsher and less sympathetic treatment of blacks (as compared to whites) throughout the entire criminal process.The race problem in the American criminal justice system persists because we enable it. The tendency of liberals to point a finger at law enforcement, racial conservatives, the War on Drugs, is misguided. Black as well as white voters, Democrat as much as Republican lawmakers, President Obama as much as Reagan, both Congress and the Supreme Court alike; all are implicated. We all are 'The Man'. Whether the problem is defined in terms of blacks overrepresentation in prisons or in terms of the disproportional use of deadly police force against blacks, not enough of us demand that something be done. The Political Roots of Racial Tracking in American Criminal Justice is the story of how the race problem in criminal justice is continually enabled in the national crime policy process, and why.1. Racial tracking: two law-enforcement modes; 2. Policy process theory of racial tracking: an overview; 3. A color-blind problem: the US Supreme Court and racial influences in law enforcement; 4. Ol³'