Studies in Transgression
Studies in Transgression, edited by David Brotherton, publishes books at the intersection of sociology and critical criminology. This series challenges the normative conventions of the broader study of crime to produce a fuller accounting of a society’s responsibilities for and complicity in the threats and wrongdoing that come to be seen as police-able crimes. The series examines behaviors understood as transgressive by looking at the cultural assumptions that contextualize that reading and the structural factors that underlie those behaviors. Books in the series will examine marginal lifestyles and their relationship to crime around the Unites States and the globe. Perspective authors should contact the series edtior David Brotherton or Temple University Press Editor Ryan Mulligan to discuss their work in progress for inclusion in the series.
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Gangs on Trial Challenging Stereotypes and Demonization in the Courts: John M. Hagedorn, with a Foreword by Craig Haney
Prominent gang researcher John Hagedorn reveals that what transpires in the trials of gang members is a far cry from what we would consider justice. In Gangs on Trial, he uses stories from the 73 gang related court cases he consulted on to vividly describe how stereotypes are a prosecutor’s best friend. He shows how gang members are dehumanized in order to secure the most punitive sentences.
The Black Lives Matter movement exposed racism in policing. Gangs on Trial exposes racism in the courts. Hagedorn gives examples of how to combat stereotypes in trials and sentencing hearings, though he acknowledges this is an uphill struggle.
Hagedorn’s lively stories from the courtroom apply concepts from social psychology to understand injustice. He describes how jurors’ minds are subconsciously “primed” to transform a gang member on trial into a “prototype” of a violent monster. Rather than consider the social context of a crime or the real biography of the defendant, the prosecutor convinces the court that violence is part of the defendant’s nature and circumstances are less important or even irrelevant.
Hagedorn argues that dehumanization is the psychological foundation of mass incarceration. Gangs on Trial advocates for practical sentencing reforms, humanizing justice, and supports the movement for progressive prosecutors.
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Before Crips Fussin', Cussin', and Discussin' among South Los Angeles Juvenile Gangs: John C. Qucker and Akil S. Batani-Khalfani
This groundbreaking book opens the door on the missing record of South Los Angeles juvenile gangs. It is the result of the unique friendship that developed between John Quicker and Akil Batani-Khalfani, aka Bird, who collaborated to show how structural marginality transformed hang-out street groups of non-White juveniles into gangs, paving the way for the rise of the infamous Crips and Bloods. Before Crips uses a macro historical analysis to sort through political and economic factors to explain the nature of gang creation.
The authors mine a critical archive, using direct interviews with original gang members as well as theory and literature reviews, to contextualize gang life and gang formation. They discuss (and fuss and cuss about) topics ranging from the criminal economy and conceptions of masculinity to racial and gendered politics and views of violence. Their insider/outsider approach not only illuminates gang values and organization, but what they did and why, and how they grew in a backdrop of inequality and police brutality that came to a head with the 1965 Watts Rebellion.
Providing an essential understanding of early South Los Angeles gang life, Before Crips explains what has remained constant, what has changed, and the roots of the violence that continues.