FINAL STUDY GUIDE SPRING 2012 MINORITIES CRIME AND SOCIAL POLICY PLEASE NOTE CHAPTERS 10 12 15 THE CONCLUSION WILL BE COVERED ON THE EXAM BUT ARE NOT INCLUDED ON THE STUDYGUIDE Please Note The following questions are derived from Mann Zatz s Images of Color Images of Crime These questions are not intended to provide an exhaustive review or summary of the information that you will be examined on This is supplementary material and should be used in conjunction with class notes discussions and a detailed reading of the chapters Be sure to answer the discussion questions at the end of each chapter Memorizing this material alone will not adequately prepare you for the exam Don t forget to review the information study guide from the Russell C o l or of C r i m e B o o k Mann Zatz s Images of Color Images of Crime Forward Introduction 1 How does Derrick Bell define Crime and the linkage between color and crime Crime is that conduct a society finds threatening and when that conduct is that of persons of color it is particularly threatening the actor becoming a greater danger than the deed Popular perceptions of crime and criminality are racialized By linking images of color with images of crime the stereotypes underlying the media reporting on crime and criminality are very apparent 2 According to Derrick Bell is racism a temporary or permanent phenomenon in America Permanent 3 According to Mann Zatz which racial ethnic group has been the subject of the greatest number of empirical studies Why African Americans First reason when people in many different areas think of race particularly people of European decent they think of blacks Second up until very recently the U S Census Bureau local police depts courts etc have only recorded ethnicity as white nonwhite OR black white other So because so little data is available quantitative research on the experiences of other groups via the CJS is difficult It wasn t until the 2000 Census that US population counts included categories for multiethnic and multiracial responses This all leads to the third reason because far more empirical studies of blacks have been addressed with crime and criminal injustice than those of any other group more information is available that authors can draw Side note it mentions that this book devotes equal attention to all groups including Euro Americans Pgs 1 2 4 What is Mann Zatz s position on race Race is a social construction This means 3 things 1 Race is NOT a fixed identity it is social decided rather than biologically determined 2 Racial categories and the meanings attached make sense only in their historical contexts and in light of specific social relations 3 Racial dynamics are flexible fluid and always political In some contexts attributions of race can change over night An example in Brazil one s color is based more on SES and social status rather than one s skin color So it is possible that even if you are lighter skinned there but poor you are regarded as darker than you really are pg 2 5 What definition does Mann Zatz offer for the term racism borrowed from Omi and Winant Racism can be defined as social practices which explicitly or implicitly attribute merits or allocate values to members of racially categorized groups solely because of their race Side note like race racism is socially constructed Racism also must be multifaceted and flexible The form in which racism presents itself change as social conditions change 6 What is intersectionality as defined by Mann Zatz This correlates with he 11th under my additional notes Count down Most of the time you cannot separate race gender and ethnicity When you try to separate any one of them you risk splitting the person in two this is what intersectionality refers to For example a black woman is never just black she s also a woman She is also never just a woman she is also black So in easy words intersectionality is defined as the splitting a person in two when attempting to separate gender ethnicity and race 7 How does Georges Abeyie define petite apartheid realities It s another aspect of institutionalized racism These are the everyday activities that contribute to poor relations between the police and persons of color such as routine stop and question or stop and frisk law enforcement practices more info about institutionalized racism in my additional notes section 8 How do Mann Zatz define Racial Formation The process by which people attach meaning and importance to racial categories The meaning and material consequences attached to being black are different now from what they were at the height of the civil rights movement under slavery 9 What is Individual Societal Racial Formation At the individual level racial formation is part of the process by which people formulate their identities At the societal level racial formation is structural it s based on social relations between groups Race plays a central role in social relations 10 Why does the author state that we need to look at the way in which we define crime I cannot find this answer in either the forward or introduction If someone finds this please e mail me with the page number because I would like to know myself 11 According to Mann Zatz are racial and ethnic stereotypes gendered According to Mann and Zatz The essays in this volume demonstrate that racial and ethnic typifications are very much gendered Some examples of this include Black welfare queens drunken American Indian men and Latino drug dealing gangbangers Or even Aunt Jemima of syrup gender is very much a part of each of the racist depictions stated above Additional Notes that I have taken throughout the 2 sections above Racism is all about power Rodney King s beating stimulated the nation because it was on videotape not because it was rare Race relations are complex We don t see judges out right say racist things very often anymore it s rare but more common today we see judges just simply follow the law bc that is their responsibility regardless of any personal concern that the law s effects may be racially biased Economic political and social relations reinforce and perpetuate racial inequalities We all have personal biases and certain prejudices however not everyone has the power to act on the basis of those prejudices Racism has at least 3 forms 1 Personal prejudice it s the most limiting view of racism and serves simply to disguise and defend racial privileges 2 Ideological Culture and biology and invoked to rationalize and