Embodiment, Race, and the Social Construction of Crime

• In Event: The Colors of Embodiment and Crime: Toward a Criminal Justice Ethic

Abstract

A leading assumption of the criminal justice system is that people are ‘justly’ punished for their crimes. However, this particular assumption is based on specific epistemologies, such as naturalism and atomism, which suggest that people are inherently subject to the same laws within the set of circumstances or contexts, and therefore the outcomes are ostensibly just for all. In this paper, we argue that such assumptions lack validity and that crime and race are both socially constructed and subject to bias. The essence of how we understand the embodiment as it relates to skin color informs our perception of deviance and how this deviance is pursued. For example, “Throughout the drug war, African Americans have been disproportionately investigated, detained, searched, arrested and charged with the use, possession and sale of illegal drugs” (Nunn, 2002). African Americans comprise 14% of regular drug users but are 37% of those arrested for drug offenses. In addition, once convicted black offenders receive longer sentences compared to white offenders. Evidently, different embodiments do not elicit the same perception of what it means to be human from the perspective of the criminal justice system (Drug Policy, 2016).

Authors

• Brett Breton, Utah Valley University

• Madison Hanks, Utah Valley University

• Danni Petersen, Utah Valley University