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(Dis)Continuities in Racialized Legal Violence

Publication ,  Journal Article
Ward, G; Cunningham, D; Lee, H; Gaby, S
Published in: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
March 1, 2021

Amid growing research on the history and legacies of racist violence in the United States, there has been limited development of theory and measurement pertaining to racist violence as a sociological process. Social science research has centered on lynching and, to a lesser extent, slavery and broader Jim Crow laws and customs, and rarely have these and other forms been engaged together and in relation to contemporary outcomes. We focus on racialized “legal violence”—uses of law in ways that are harmful to populations defined by race—and use the case of South Carolina “slave courts” to explore modes of racialized violence that are expansive and intertwined. Contrary to a more sequential and linear reading of successive and discreet modes of repression (e.g., “slavery ended..”), our analysis shows recursive, multidimensional, and cascading aspects of injurious legal action and inaction that accumulate and repeat over time. Continuities of racialized legal violence, which are contested and thus dynamic, modify and maintain age-old structural constraints. Rather than unfolding in sequence—from settler colonialism to enslavement, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration—“peculiar institutions” are more fluid, sharing repertoires and networks of racialized legal violence that recombine over time.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

DOI

EISSN

1552-3349

ISSN

0002-7162

Publication Date

March 1, 2021

Volume

694

Issue

1

Start / End Page

22 / 31

Related Subject Headings

  • General Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
 

Citation

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ICMJE
MLA
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Ward, G., Cunningham, D., Lee, H., & Gaby, S. (2021). (Dis)Continuities in Racialized Legal Violence. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 694(1), 22–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027162211023354
Ward, G., D. Cunningham, H. Lee, and S. Gaby. “(Dis)Continuities in Racialized Legal Violence.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 694, no. 1 (March 1, 2021): 22–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027162211023354.
Ward G, Cunningham D, Lee H, Gaby S. (Dis)Continuities in Racialized Legal Violence. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 2021 Mar 1;694(1):22–31.
Ward, G., et al. “(Dis)Continuities in Racialized Legal Violence.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 694, no. 1, Mar. 2021, pp. 22–31. Scopus, doi:10.1177/00027162211023354.
Ward G, Cunningham D, Lee H, Gaby S. (Dis)Continuities in Racialized Legal Violence. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 2021 Mar 1;694(1):22–31.
Journal cover image

Published In

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

DOI

EISSN

1552-3349

ISSN

0002-7162

Publication Date

March 1, 2021

Volume

694

Issue

1

Start / End Page

22 / 31

Related Subject Headings

  • General Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences