Descripciones mejoradas de Syndetics:

When Americans are asked what concerns them most about the direction of the country, crime and racial tensions invariably figure prominently in the answer. In the minds of many, these two problems are inextricably linked. Yet opinions and beliefs about race and crime are often informed as much by myth and preconception as by fact and reality.
In this important book, Katheryn K. Russell surveys the landscape of American crime and identifies some of the country's most significant racial pathologies. Why do Black and White Americans perceive police actions so differently? Is White fear of Black crime justified? Do African Americans really "protect their own"? Should they?
Perhaps the most explosive and troublesome phenomenon at the nexus of race and crime is the racial hoax--a contemporary version of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Examining both White-on-Black hoaxes such as Susan Smith's and Charles Stuart's claims that Black men were responsible for crimes they themselves committed, and Black-on-White hoaxes such as the Tawana Brawley episode, Russell illustrates the formidable and lasting damage that occurs when racial stereotypes are manipulated and exploited for personal advantage. She shows us how such hoaxes have disastrous consequences and compellingly argues for harsher punishments for offenders.
Stressing that journalists, scholars, and policymakers alike have an ethical imperative to disregard and refute inflammatory or wrong-headed work on race, The Color of Crime is a lucid and forceful book, impossible to ignore.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Acknowledgments(p. xi)
• Introduction(p. xiii)
• 1 The Color of Crime: External and Internal Images(p. 1)
• 2 Measuring Racial Equity in Criminal Justice: The Historical Record(p. 14)
• 3 Racial Discrimination or Disproportionate Offending?(p. 26)
• 4 Are We Still Talking about O.J.?(p. 47)
• 5 The Racial Hoax as Crime(p. 69)
• 6 Science, Scientific Racism, and the Ethical Imperative(p. 94)
• 7 In Search of White Crime(p. 110)
• 8 Affirmative Race Law(p. 130)
• Afterword(p. 149)
• Appendix A Police-Public Contact Survey(p. 151)
• Appendix B Racial Hoaxes: Case Summaries (1987-1996)(p. 157)
• Notes(p. 175)
• Selected Bibliography(p. 191)
• Index(p. 199)
• About the Author(p. 203)

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

If perception is truth, Russell's book is a useful vehicle for assisting general readers and undergraduates to discern the "truth" of the interplay between race and the criminal justice system, combined with suggestions for changing or modifying that truth to reflect a more honest or socially aware reality. Russell explores a number of interesting issues surrounding crime and color: systemic racial bias, cultural differences (and similarities) in white and black attitudes toward the criminal justice system, the proliferation of racial hoaxes with respect to crime (e.g., Susan Smith, Charles Stuart, and 65 other such cases), and the ethical implications of shoddy scientific research on race and crime. Her book's strongest section may be its sketch of the historical role of race--from slave codes to Jim Crow statutes--in the development and operation of the criminal justice system. This historical critique yields, says Russell, a series of six "Fairness Principles" for a racially fair criminal justice system, the sixth and most important of which is a demand for checks and balances that mitigate against racial bias within the legal order. The book also provides a usable critique of the measurements of racial bias in the criminal justice system and concludes by acknowledging that although law cannot erase all of the racial discrimination contained in that system, it can be made to operate in a much more race-neutral manner. E. A. Andrus; Northeastern University