The Language of Legislating Order: Quality of Life Ordinances at the Height of the Punitive Turn

• In Event: Over-Policing Communities of Color

Abstract

Contemporary scholarship on punishment in the United States is often framed in terms of the “punitive turn” (Garland, 2001), or the expansive resurgence of retributive penal responses in recent decades. However, some scholarship deviates from Garland’s assertion that the shift has been largely race, class, and gender neutral. For example, racial threat theorists argue that the devices of modern punishment are designed specifically to prevent minorities from encroaching upon the privileged status of Whites in society. The current study uses Qualitative Content Analysis to explore of the rhetoric around the creation of Quality of Life (QOL) ordinances in 60 cities from the National Neighborhood Crime Survey (NNCS). Using the NNCS allows the language of legislative action at the height of the punitive turn to be delineated according to the various characteristics of place commonly associated with levels of racial threat. To the extent that the language of QOL ordinances is consistently broad in its tone, support for Garland’s take on the penal turn may be found. Conversely, if the rhetoric of legislation routinely targets specific types of people or places, racial threat narratives may be required to understand the nature of penal responses characterizing the punitive turn.

Author

• Sarah Trocchio, Rutgers University