This street participatory action research (Street PAR) study organized 15 residents to document street‐identified Black youth and adult's negative experiences with police in Wilmington, Delaware. Data were collected on mostly street‐identified Black men and women aged 18–35 in the forms of (1) 520 surveys, (2) 24 individual interviews, (3) four dual interviews, (4) three group interviews, and (5) extensive field observations. Forty‐two percent of survey participants reported being stopped by police in the last year. However, with the exception of being “stopped,” participants overall reported little negative contact with police at least within the past year. Chi‐square and ANOVA analyses suggest an interactional relationship exists between race, gender, and age on experiences with police. Younger Black men (18–21) were found to have the most negative contact with police. Analysis suggests a smaller, more hardened mostly male variant of the larger street community has had repeated contact with police. Qualitative analysis reveals at least two major themes: (1) disrespect and disdain for residents and (2) low motivation for working with police. Street PAR methodology was also found to be instrumental in working with local residents and the Wilmington Police Department to improve conditions between residents and police.
Research and public discourse on urban policing and the collateral consequences of mass incarceration often center on the experiences of young males, particularly young Black and brown men who live in low-income, high-crime neighborhoods. Consequently, less is known about how young women are policed in these contexts; and whether their experiences and dispositions toward police vary across racial and ethnic groups. Drawing on 70 in-depth interviews with low-income Black, Latina, and White young women between the ages of 14 and 24, in the City of Philadelphia, the current research explores the differences and similarities in their experiences with and perceptions of police, and the social contexts that influence those interactions. A comparative analysis reveals important nuances in young women's direct and indirect experiences with police by race and ethnicity. The findings indicate that, within disadvantaged neighborhoods, particularly among young Black and Latina women, direct and vicarious experiences with policing contribute to expressions of legal cynicism.
Objective: Using components of the Family Adjustment and Adaptation Response Model, Critical Race Feminism, and Sites of Resilience, this study explored how street-identified Black American mothers engage in street life, while juggling the pressures of childrearing, family, and home life within a distressed, urban Black community. Background: Street-identified Black American mothers are vilified for their intersecting identities of being Black women who are experiencing poverty, and who may also be involved in illegal activity. Black mothers are disproportionately represented in the criminal legal system, but existing research has inadequately examined how streetidentified Black mothers "do" family in the confines of structural violence. Method: We addressed this gap by analyzing interview data with 39 street-identified Black American mothers ages 18 to 54. Data were collected using street participatory action research. Results: We identified a typology of three adaptive mothering strategies employed by street-identified Black women as they respond to and cope with violent structural conditions shaping their mothering: constrained mothering, racialized mothering, and aspirational mothering. Conclusions: Findings suggested that these strategies were developed in response to an overarching carceral apparatus, of which these mothers were tasked with avoiding when possible and confronting when necessary. Their mothering strategies were shaped by a collective, Black American cultural identity and worldview, and the mothers possessed a unique way of perceiving the world as criminalized subjects with disproportionate proximity to the punitive state.
Whitesel () argues that racialized stereotypes about black bodies were used as foundations for the killing and subsequent character assassinations of Eleanor Bumpurs and Eric Garner. In response to Whitesel, I offer several points to expand on the arguments raised, as well as some critiques that should enhance future research on policing and state‐sanctioned violence.
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