Racially neutral policing: Puerto Rican and Mexican youths’ experiences with order maintenance strategies

• In Event: Comparative Perspectives on Policing and Surveillance

Abstract

Despite the nationwide proliferation of seemingly racially neutral police strategies, young Latino males residing in urban neighborhoods continue to report unfavorable experiences with the police. Limited attention has been given to how urban strategies, such as order maintenance policing, are experienced by young Latino males. Advocates of order maintenance policing do not adequately consider how an aggressive crusade against “disorder” could criminalize longstanding cultural behaviors and be perceived as harassment by minority youth. In Latino neighborhoods basic recreational and social activities could become the targets of order maintenance strategies. The present study uses data from in-depth interviews conducted with Latino youth in two Chicago neighborhoods. A total of n=9 participants in the Mexican community and n=11 individuals in the Puerto Rican community were interviewed via snowball sampling techniques. Results reveal that in the Puerto Rican neighborhood, policing is shaped by gentrification efforts. In the Mexican neighborhood, policing is structured by a traditional battle against drugs and gangs. The implications of order maintenance policing are discussed.

Authors

• Claudio Gabriel Vera Sanchez, San Jose State University

• Jacinta Gau, University of Central Florida