"Law Never Here": A Social History of African American Responses to Issues of Crime and Justice

Review"A valuable piece of work that is long overdue. All levels." -- ChoiceProduct DescriptionShared racial and cultural experiences and the collective memory of those experiences play important roles in determining the responses of African Americans to issues of crime and violence. By examining American history through the prism of African American experience, this volume provides a framework for understanding contemporary issues regarding crime and justice, including the much-discussed gap between how blacks and whites perceive the fairness of the criminal justice system. Following a thesis offered by W.E.B. Du Bois with regard to African American responses to oppression, the authors argue that responses by African Americans to issues of crime and justice have taken three main forms--resistance, accommodation, and self-determination. These responses are related to efforts by African Americans to carve out social and psychological space for themselves and to find their place in America.About the AuthorFRANKIE Y. BAILEY is Associate Professor in the School of Criminal Justice, State University of New York at Albany./e Her research and teaching focus on issues of race, class, gender, and social conflict in the fields of crime and American culture and crime history. She is the author of Out of the Woodpile: Black Characters in Crime and Detective Fiction (Greenwood, 1991) and the coeditor of Popular Culture, Crime, and Justice (with Donna C. Hale, 1998).ALICE P. GREEN is the founder and Executive Director of the Center for Law and Justice, a community-based organization that serves as a clearinghouse for information on legal and criminal justice systems for members of low-income communities and those of color./e An activist/criminologist, she monitors criminal justice programs and lectures extensively on social policy, race, crime, and the impact of incarceration on African Americans and their communities.
Author: Green, Alice P.

Publisher: Praeger

Binding: Hardcover

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0275953033

ISBN-13: 9780275953034