Arresting Citizenship ─ The Democratic Consequences of American Crime Control

Never before has American government exhibited so vast a network of institutions dedicated to the control, confinement and supervision of its citizens. This book is one of the first to probe the consequences of this carceral state for citizenship, civil society, and democracy. Policing Democracy argues that the growth and reach of the criminal justice system has fundamentally recast the citizen-state relationship, resulting in a sizable and growing American civic underclass. Today, at each stage of criminal justice?from police stops to court adjudication to incarceration?citizens in this underclass have come to experience a state-within-a state that reflects few of this country’s core democratic values. Through scores of interviews, along with analyses of large-scale surveys, the authors demonstrates how contact with police, courts, prisons, and jails produces a ?carceral lifeworld”? characterized by decreased trust in political institutions, a reduced faith that the state will respond to the will of the people, and a diminished sense of standing and citizenship.

Amy E. Lerman is assistant professor in the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of The Modern Prison Paradox. She lives in Berkeley, CA. Vesla M. Weaver is assistant professor in the Department of African American Studies and the Department of Political Science at Yale University. She lives in New Haven, CT, and is coauthor of Creating a New Racial Order.