POLICING, INCARCERATION, RACE, AND PROTEST AFTER FERGUSON

Abstract

Abstract This article asks whether mass incarceration is a system and whether harsh treatment in that system is motivated by explicit and implicit racial bias. To describe this system, I adopt an alternative term, “penal regime,” which has the benefit of permitting a more inclusive and systematic account of law enforcement, courts, and corrections. My analysis is based on the important fact that US penal regimes are democratic and, to be understood in context, must be tied to American punitive and racial attitudes as expressed through the discretion of elected officeholders. I find that a racial empathy gap explains some important problems with criminal justice, and I argue that protest speech about police conduct may cross the empathy gap in a manner that deserves significant theoretical attention and practical support.