Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment

by Angela J. Davis, Bryan Stevenson, Marc Mauer, Bruce Western, Jeremy Travis

Overview

A comprehensive, readable analysis of the key issues of the Black Lives Matter movement, this thought-provoking and compelling anthology features essays by some of the nation’s most influential and respected criminal justice experts and legal scholars.

“Somewhere among the anger, mourning and malice that Policing the Black Man documents lies the pursuit of justice. This powerful book demands our fierce attention.” —Toni Morrison

Policing the Black Man explores and critiques the many ways the criminal justice system impacts the lives of African American boys and men at every stage of the criminal process, from arrest through sentencing.  Essays range from an explication of the historical roots of racism in the criminal justice system to an examination of modern-day police killings of unarmed black men. The contributors discuss and explain racial profiling, the power and discretion of police and prosecutors, the role of implicit bias, the racial impact of police and prosecutorial decisions, the disproportionate imprisonment of black men, the collateral consequences of mass incarceration, and the Supreme Court’s failure to provide meaningful remedies for the injustices in the criminal justice system. Policing the Black Man is an enlightening must-read for anyone interested in the critical issues of race and justice in America. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780525436614
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/15/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	204,543
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

ANGELA J. DAVIS is a professor of law at the American University and a former director of the D.C. Public Defender Service. She is the author of Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor and the coeditor of several books on criminal law and procedure. She has also written many articles and contributed chapters to many books on prosecutorial power and racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

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Copyright © 2018 Angela J. Davis.
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 
 
Introduction 
Angela J. Davis 
 
A Presumption of Guilt: The Legacy of America’s History of Racial Injustice
Bryan Stevenson 
 
The Endurance of Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice System 
Marc Mauer 
 
Boys to Men: The Role of Policing in the Socialization of Black Boys 
Kristin Henning 
 
Racial Profiling: The Law, the Policy, and the Practice 
Renée McDonald Hutchins 
 
Making Implicit Bias Explicit: Black Men and the Police 
Katheryn Russell- Brown 
 
Policing: A Model for the Twenty-first Century 
Tracey Meares and Tom Tyler 
 
The Prosecution of Black Men 
Angela J. Davis
 
The Grand Jury and Police Violence Against Black Men 
Roger A. Fairfax, Jr.
 
Elected Prosecutors and Police Accountability 
Ronald F. Wright
 
Do Black Lives Matter to the Courts? 
Jin Hee Lee and Sherrilyn A. Ifill
 
Poverty, Violence, and Black Incarceration 
Jeremy Travis and Bruce Western

Editorial Reviews

Somewhere among the anger, mourning and malice that Policing the Black Man documents lies the pursuit of justice. This powerful book demands our fierce attention.” —Toni Morrison

“Like Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow:  Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness or Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, Policing the Black Man insightfully shows us why the encounter between black men and even black boys with the criminal justice system is, and long has been historically, fraught, reflecting larger social and economic relations between white and black Americans.   The essays collected here by Angela Davis effectively demonstrate how the  painful history of racial injustice in America informs a black male’s experience of virtually every aspect of our system of justice, from arrest, through prosecution and sentencing, to incarceration.  This book is essential reading for all of us who love the concept of justice in America, and seek for its practical applications to live up to its theoretical ideals.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

“Policing the Black Man is a social-political mitzvah. With statistics in one hand and true beating heart in the other these writers deconstruct the monolith of racism and the conscious and unconscious deadly intent of the powers that be.” —Walter Mosley

"Rigorous and chilling. This collection from leading academics and lawyers is profoundly unsettling but also fiercely illuminating. For all those working to see truth, reconciliation, and justice prevail in America, this collection is an essential and timely provocation." — Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD- 8)

 “This essential anthology explains the deep American history of the alarming and unconscionable racial disparities in policing, prosecution, and mass incarceration. From the Black Codes to capital punishment, specific policies and propaganda have licensed serially violent overreactions to the mere sight and shape of black boys and men.  Yet this volume contains hope in its elucidation of the structural bases of such dangerous bias.  In decoding how such a tragedy came to be, the essays in this collection just might lead to the kind of understanding so necessary for the health and safety of all citizens, for trust in the institutions of law enforcement, and for the rehabilitation of justice itself.”  —Patricia Williams, MacArthur Fellow and John L. Dohr Professor of Law, Columbia Law School

"Angela J. Davis powerfully shows the American police and justice system are heavily biased against non-white Americans. Policing the Black Man is an indictment of American justice system and police. It is one of the best books on racism in America. This should put every American to shame." —The Washington Book Review

"Lucid perspectives on how and why the United States criminal justice system often victimizes black males.... An absorbing anthology, scholarly yet approachable." —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

05/01/2017
“The political justice system polices black men at every step of the process,” asserts Davis (Arbitrary Justice), a professor of law at American University and editor of this eye-opening assemblage of essays on racism in the American criminal justice system. The various perspectives of the contributors—all specialists in criminal law and justice—offer a kaleidoscopic view of each step. In “Boys to Men,” for example, Kristin Henning, the director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic at Georgetown Law, demonstrates the devastating impact of the presence of police security officers in schools. Her essay is followed by law professor Katheryn Russell-Brown’s in-depth examination of implicit bias. “The Grand Jury and Police Violence Against Black Men,” by Roger Fairfax (Grand Jury 2.0), illuminates a less-discussed stage of the criminal process, as does Davis’s own contribution, which considers the particular role of the prosecutor. The culmination is relentlessly informative and disturbing. (July)

Publishers Weekly

07/01/2017
In the introduction to these new essays, Davis (law, American Univ.; Arbitrary Justice) states that the media has made the American public real-time witnesses to the country's chronic and systemic violence against black males. Davis, along with 13 other criminal justice experts, advance critical understanding to combat and correct structural racism and advocate for justice and peace. They suggest that, although the evidence is now readily available, targeted brutality is hardly new as it perpetuates what black people have endured and continue to live with following the legacy of slavery and the racialized criminal justice system. Policing propagates that legacy through policies and practices of racial profiling. Further, implicit bias from chronic presumption of guilt reaches beyond policing to disparate prosecuting of black males, as several contributors demonstrate. The essayists offer more than indictments, however. Almost all move beyond calls for reform to respond with practical suggestions for change to make black lives truly matter. VERDICT For general readers, students, and experts alike, these essays provide much-needed data, analysis, and insights into the disparities throughout U.S. society and its criminal justice system. [See Prepub Alert, 2/13/17.] —Thomas J. Davis, Arizona State Univ., Tempe

Library Journal

Professor Davis collects a powerful range of authors with critical legal perspectives that unpack the how racist ideology has been intertwined with the legal system throughout history and into the present. Robin Miles and Kevin Kenerly trade off narrating the essays according to each author’s gender. Miles’s matter-of-fact voice is coupled with a skill for timing and emphasis that makes the points being made resonate with the listener. Kenerly's deep and soft voice doesn't deliver the same punch that Miles’s does but still provides a consistent and engaging narration. Amid the current racial tension in the U.S., Davis’s collection articulates the ways that black men are legally disenfranchised and, as a result, culturally disregarded. L.E. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2017 - AudioFile

2017-04-10
Lucid perspectives on how and why the United States criminal justice system often victimizes black males.A professor at American University's Washington College of Law, Davis (Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor, 2007, etc.) used her platform to pull together this collection of essays from a variety of scholars and writers. Providing useful context, the editor points out that black males have never fared well when confronted by police and prosecutors across the U.S. For a couple of centuries, in fact, black men could rarely convince white authorities of the breadth and depth of the injustices. In recent decades, new technology, including smartphones and body cameras, combined with the sounding board of social media have removed doubt about the credibility of many victims. In the introduction, Davis invokes the names of numerous dead black males, placing special emphasis on the killing of Trayvon Martin five years ago by George Zimmerman. While soliciting the essays, Davis offered an expanded definition of the word "policing," showing how much of the foundation of policing black males rests on racial profiling by law enforcement. In her powerful essay, law professor Renée McDonald Hutchins explains what the law does and does not say about racial profiling, how police agency policies are drafted in light of the law, and how the on-the-street practices of racial profiling sometimes violate both the letter and spirit of laws and policies. While many of the essays focus on the police, Davis focuses on her specialty, prosecutors, and how their untrammeled authority is a major part of the problems within the criminal justice system. While the essays lean toward narrating the problems rather than proposing comprehensive solutions, the final essay links multigenerational poverty of black males with violence and an absurd level of incarceration. Other contributors include Bryan Stevenson, Sherrilyn Ifill, and Marc Mauer. An absorbing anthology, scholarly yet approachable.

Kirkus Reviews