NCJ Number
222852
Journal
Criminology Volume: 46 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2008 Pages: 1-34
Date Published
February 2008
Length
34 pages
Annotation
This article offers an explanation as to why human-rights concerns that underlie criminal justice policies of most Western nations are so weak in early 21st-century America and why Black Americans bear the brunt of this trend.
Abstract
Internationally, 21st-century American political culture has spawned the tortures of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, "rendition" (sending alleged terrorists captured by Americans for interrogations in foreign countries with traditions of torture), and waterboarding. Domestically, it has promoted capital punishment, sentences of life without the possibility of parole, three-strikes laws, decades-long mandatory minimum sentences, and prosecutions of children as if they were adults. Those targeted under these policies are regarded without empathy or respect as human beings. Two recurring features of American history have combined with obsolete features of U.S. constitutional arrangements to produce policies in American governing that are harsher than those in other Western countries. These two features of American history are the "paranoid style" of American politics (Richard Hofstadter, 1965) and the influence of Protestant religious fundamentalism. The distinctive history of American race relations has meant that the burdens of those policies are borne disproportionately by disadvantaged Black Americans, which makes them relatively easy to bear by the White and middle-class majority. Discriminatory punitiveness spurred by the paranoid style of American politics and the rigid moralism of religious fundamentalism has intensified in recent years. This has stemmed from heightened social anxiety spurred by globalization and economic restructuring; fanatical terrorism; increased population diversity; and social movements that have promoted civil rights, women's rights, and gay rights. 78 references