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RACE, LEGAL CYNICISM, AND THE MACHINE POLITICS OF DRUG LAW ENFORCEMENT IN CHICAGO

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2018

John Hagan ,
Bill McCarthy  and
Daniel Herda
John Hagan*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Northwestern University
Bill McCarthy
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of California Davis
Daniel Herda
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Merrimack College
*
*Corresponding author: John L. Hagan, Department of Sociology, Northwestern University, 1812 Chicago Avenue, Evanston, IL 60208. E-mail: j-hagan@northwestern.edu.
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Abstract

Using a wide array of official and unofficial data spanning two decades in the neighborhoods of Chicago, we explore connections between legal cynicism, the electoral regime of Mayor Richard M. Daley, and citizen calls for police assistance and police reports of drug crime. We find that the disproportionate concentration of legal cynicism about law enforcement in African American neighborhoods played a prominent and insufficiently understood role in building opposition to Mayor Daley’s political machine. This race linked legal cynicism was grounded in neighborhood concerns about effective prevention of and protection from drug crime. The more punitive than preventative and protective approach to drug law enforcement that characterized the politics of the Daley crime machine contributed to a legacy that foreshadowed the growing and ultimately explosive demands for new mechanisms of police accountability in Chicago.

Keywords

Legal Cynicism911 CallsDrug CrimeRaceNeighborhoods
Type
Policies, Politics, and the Plight of Race and Ethnic Groups
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , Spring 2018 , pp. 129 - 151
Copyright
Copyright © Hutchins Center for African and African American Research 2018 

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