NCJ Number
139363
Journal
Harvard Civil Rights Civil Liberties Law Review Volume: 27 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1992) Pages: 71-126
Date Published
1992
Length
56 pages
Annotation
This article draws parallels between the roles and attitudes of the "White Man" under colonialism and the "White Man" in the contemporary U.S. criminal justice system.
Abstract
The attractions of the White Man's vision of the criminal justice career lie not in the magnitude of monetary compensation or professional status (both are very low compared to an attorney in a prestigious law firm). The attractions are a steady salary (freedom from acute financial worries), an all-male world (freedom from the ambivalence and demands of domestic life), autonomy (freedom from others' definitions), a supply of comrades (freedom from the fear of isolation), and automatic superiority over a substantial portion of the people met in daily life. This latter characteristic of the criminal justice career parallels colonialism, whereby the colonials managed the lives of the vulnerable and the powerless. The disappointments and pitfalls of the criminal justice career are that it conditions its professionals to be hostile to demands that they respect individual differences, recognize shared humanity, and value intimate relationships between equals. These pitfalls lead to burnout, as criminal justice professionals become more repressive of those they deem inferior and alienated from companions with whom they cannot share honest and intimate feelings. The criminal justice professional is thus in danger of becoming like the colonial imperial "White Man." 150 footnotes