Book Review: Spohn, C. and Hemmens, C Courts: A Text/Reader. Los Angeles: SAGE, 2009. xx, 729 pp. $60.95. ISBN: 9781412940641

Abstract

psychological, and medical needs faced by victims. Tragically, little of the legislation enacted in the name of idealized victims truly represents average victims or their needs.By clearly explicating how the crime issue has become a defining framework for governance, Simon demonstrates how this has weakened the foundation of our democracy and led to justifications for previously legally unacceptable practices. ''Governing through crime is making America less democratic and more racially polarized; it is exhausting our social capital and repressing our capacity for innovation'' (p. 6). Risk and safety concerns are now routinely used as ''legitimate'' grounds for employee dismissals, racial discrimination, dismissing concerns of gender inequality that do not fit the definition of domestic violence or sexual harassment, and the fortification of our schools through the use of drug testing, metal detectors, and searches.The author not only describes how policy motivated by crime fear is frequently self-defeating but also offers alternative frameworks for governance, most notably using a cancer model, which has a strong emphasis on prevention and empowering the multiple perspectives of cancer patients/victims. Given the recent political focus on ''hope'' and ''change,'' it will be interesting to see whether such an alternative model comes to fruition. As we face this challenge, Simon aptly cautions, ''In a very real sense, our ability to roll back the penal state and its mass imprisonment may depend most on our ability to talk ourselves down from the way we prioritize the avoidance of crime risk in shaping our family life'' (p. 206). I would recommend Governing Through Crime for scholars and students in law, public policy, criminology, criminal justice, and political science.

Does “Jamal” receive a harsher sentence than “James”? First-name bias in the criminal sentencing of Black men.

“…Decades of research in criminology, legal studies, and sociology document the contribution of sentencing biases to these disparities (Bushway & Piehl, 2001; Nowacki, 2015; Tonry, 1997). By some estimates, Black citizens receive sentences that are almost 10% longer than those of Whites charged with the same crimes (Rehavi & Starr, 2014), despite state penal systems’ adoption of sentencing guidelines designed to prevent racial discrimination (Spohn, 2000; Tonry, 1995; Zatz, 1987).…”