Articulating a Sociology of Absences in Criminal Justice System Reform Efforts: Evidence and Implications

• In Event: 2323 - Student Forum Refereed Roundtable
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: 1. Crime, Law and Deviance at an Intersection

Abstract

Current efforts at criminal justice system (CJS) reform in the United States typically target the “front” and “back” ends of the system. Empirical data on recidivism and reentry, however, suggest that this dichotomy is overly singular, risking exclusion of other viable targets for system reform. Utilizing Boaventura De Sousa Santos’s framework for a sociology of absences, which argues that what doesn’t exist is actively produced and forecloses inquiry into alternatives, this paper first problematizes this dichotomy by examining the linear temporality it ascribes to the structure and judicial process of the American criminal justice system. It then consults the empirical data on recidivism and reentry indicating that interaction with the criminal justice system in the U.S. does not generally follow a linear process with a clearly bounded entry and exit point. Finally, this paper considers how the use of this dichotomy might foreclose innovative approaches to CJS reform that envision a different temporality, structure, and process.

Author

• Maria D Valdovinos, George Mason University