Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-5xszh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-26T16:43:31.834Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Becoming “Copwise”: Policing, Culture, and the Collateral Consequences of Street-Level Criminalization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Abstract

Over the last four decades, the United States has witnessed a historic expansion of its criminal justice system. This article examines how street-level criminalization transforms the cultural contexts of poor urban communities. Drawing on five years of fieldwork in Los Angeles’ Skid Row–the site of one of the most aggressive zero-tolerance policing campaigns to date–the study finds that residents develop and deploy a particular cultural frame–“cop wisdom”–by which they render seemingly-random police activity more legible, predictable, and manipulable. Armed with this interpretive schema, “copwise” residents engage in new forms of self-presentation in public, movement through the daily round, and informal social control in order to deflect police scrutiny and forestall street stops. While these techniques allow residents to reduce unwanted police contact, this often comes at the expense of individual and collective well-being by precluding social interaction, exacerbating stigma, and contributing to animosity in public space.

Type
Articles
Copyright
© 2016 Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The author wishes to thank Stefan Timmermans, Alexandra Murphy, David Snow, Elijah Anderson, the editors of Law and Society Review, and the journal's anonymous reviewers for insightful feedback and commentary on various versions of this article.

References

Amber, Jeannine (2013) “The Talk,” Time Magazine, July 29, 33.Google Scholar
Anderson, Elijah (1990) Streetwise: Race, Class, and Change in an Urban Community. Chicago: Uni. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Elijah (1999) Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.Google Scholar
Bahr, Howard M. (1973) Skid Row: An Introduction to Disaffiliation. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Benford, Robert D., & Snow, David A. (2000) “Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment,” 26 Annual Review of Sociology 611–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bittner, Egon (1967) “The Police on Skid-Row: A Study of Peacekeeping,” 32 American Sociological Review 699715.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blasi, Gary (2007) “Policing Our Way out of Homelessness?: The First Year of the Safer Cities Initiative on Skid Row,” Los Angeles: Inter-University Consortium on Homelessness.Google Scholar
Blasi, Gary, & Stuart, Forrest (2008) “Has the Safer Cities Initiative in Skid Row Reduced Serious Crime?” Los Angeles: UCLA School of Law.Google Scholar
Blumer, Herbert (1986) Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre (1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brayne, Sarah (2014) “Surveillance and System Avoidance: Criminal Justice Contact and Institutional Attachment,” 79 American Sociological Review 367–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brunson, Rod K., & Weitzer, Ronald (2011) “Negotiating Unwelcome Police Encounters: The Intergenerational Transmission of Conduct Norms,” 40 J. of Contemporary Ethnography 425–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bursik, Robert, & Grasmick, Harold G. (1999) Neighborhoods & Crime. San Francisco: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Citron, Alan (1989) “Well, That's Just Skid Row,” Los Angeles Times, November 15, B3.Google Scholar
Clark, Kenneth B. (1965) Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power. New York: Harper and Rowe.Google Scholar
Cresswell, Tim (1996) In Place-out of Place: Geography, Ideology, and Transgression. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
DeLand, Michael (2013) “Basketball in the Key of Law: The Significance of Disputing in Pick-Up Basketball,” 47 Law and Society Review 653–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desmond, Matthew (2012) “Disposable Ties and the Urban Poor,” 117 American J. of Sociology 1295–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeVerteuil, Geoffrey (2006) “The Local State and Homeless Shelters: Beyond Revanchism?” 23 Cities 109–120.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul (1997) “Culture and Cognition,” 23 Annual Review of Sociology 263–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drake, St. Clair, & Cayton, Horace R. (1945) Black Metropolis. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.Google Scholar
Duneier, Mitchell (1999) Sidewalk. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Google Scholar
Eith, Christine, & Durose, Matthew R. (2011) “Contacts between the Police and the Public, 2008,” Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report NCJ 234599:128.Google Scholar
Ewick, Patricia, & Silbey, Susan S. (1998) The Common Place of Law: Stories from Everyday Life. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gamson, William A. (1992) Talking Politics. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Gamson, William A., & Modigliani, Andre (1989) “Media Discourse and Public Opinion on Nuclear Power: A Constructionist Approach,” 95 American J. of Sociology 137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garland, David (1990) Punishment and Modern Society: A Study in Social Theory. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glaze, Lauren E., and Kaeble, Danielle (2014) “Correctional Populations in the United States, 2013,” Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin NCJ 248479: 114.Google Scholar
Goetz, Edward G. (1992) “Land Use and Homeless Policy in Los Angeles,” 16 International J. of Urban and Regional Research 540–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goffman, Alice (2014) On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goffman, Erving (1974) Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Boston: Northeastern Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Gotham, Kevin Fox, & Brumley, Krista (2002) “Using Space: Agency and Identity in a Public–Housing Development,” 1 City & Community 267–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gowan, Teresa (2010) Hobos, Hustlers, and Backsliders: Homeless in San Francisco. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haas, Gilda, & Heskin, Allan David (1981) “Community Struggles in Los Angeles,” 5 International J. of Urban and Regional Research 546–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hagan, John, & Dinovitzer, Ronit (1999) “Collateral Consequences of Imprisonment for Children, Communities, and Prisoners,” 26 Crime and Justice 121–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hannerz, Ulf (1969) Soulside: Inquiries into Ghetto Culture and Community. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Harcourt, Bernard (2001) Illusion of Order: The False Promises of Broken Windows Policing. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Harding, David (2007) “Cultural Contexts, Sexual Behavior, and Romantic Relationships in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods,” 72 American Sociological Review 341–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinkle, Joshua C., & Weisburd, David (2008) “The Irony of Broken Windows Policing: A Micro-Place Study of the Relationship between Disorder, Focused Police Crackdowns and Fear of Crime,” 36 J. of Criminal Justice 503–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobs, Jane (1993 [1961]) The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Jones, Nikki (2010) Between Good and Ghetto: African American Girls and Inner-City Violence. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Klinenberg, Eric (2002) Heatwave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohler-Hausmann, Issa (2013) “Misdemeanor Justice: Control without Conviction,” 119 American J. of Sociology 351–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Jooyoung (2009) “Battlin’ on the Corner: Techniques for Sustaining Play,” 56 Social Problems 578–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Logan, John R., & Molotch, Harvey L. (1987) Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Los Angeles Community Action Network (2010) “Community-Based Human Rights Assessment: Skid Row's Safer Cities Initiative.”Google Scholar
Los Angeles Housing Department (2005) “Report Back on Motion Regarding Preservation of Single Room Occupancy Housing. Los Angeles City Council File 04-2-87.”Google Scholar
Marshall, Anna-Maria (2003) “Injustice Frames, Legality, and the Everyday Construction of Sexual Harassment,” 28 Law and Social Inquiry 659–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merry, Sally Engle (1981) Urban Danger: Life in a Neighborhood of Strangers. Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Merry, Sally Engle (1990) Getting Justice and Getting Even: Legal Consciousness among Working-Class Americans. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Morrill, Calvin, Snow, David A. & White, Cindy H., eds. (2005) Together Alone: Personal Relationships in Public Space. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Natapoff, Alexandra (2013) “Misdemeanors,” 85 Southern California Law Review 1313–374.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Laura Beth (2004) License to Harass: Law, Hierarchy, and Offensive Public Speech. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Reiss, Albert J. (1972) The Police and the Public. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Rios, Victor (2011) Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys. New York: New York Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Rios, Victor (2015) “Review of ‘On the Run: Fugitive Life of an American City’ by Alice Goffman,” 121 American J. of Sociology 306–08.Google Scholar
Saguy, Abigail (2003) What is Sexual Harassment?: From Capitol Hill to the Sorbonne. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saguy, Abigail, & Stuart, Forrest (2008) “Culture and Law: Beyond a Paradigm of Cause and Effect,” 619 Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 149–64.Google Scholar
Sampson, Robert J., & Byron Groves, W. (1989) “Community Structure and Crime: Testing Social-Disorganization Theory.” 94 American J. of Sociology 774802.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, Clifford (1929) Delinquency Areas. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Small, Mario Luis (2004) Villa Victoria: The Transformation of Social Capital in a Boston Barrio. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Small, Mario Luis, Harding, David J., & Lamont, Michèle (2010) “Introduction: Reconsidering Culture and Poverty,” 629 Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 627.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snow, David A., & Anderson, Leon (1987) “Identity Work among the Homeless: The Verbal Construction and Avowal of Personal Identities,” 92 American J. of Sociology 1336–371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stryker, Sheldon (2003) Symbolic Interactionism. Caldwell, NJ: Blackburn Press.Google Scholar
Stuart, Forrest (2014) “From ‘Rabble Management’ to ‘Recovery Management’: Policing Homelessness in Marginal Urban Space,” 51 Urban Studies 1909–925.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuart, Forrest (2015) “On the Streets, Under Arrest: Policing Homelessness in the Twenty-First Century,” 9 Sociology Compass 940–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuart, Forrest (2016) Down, Out, and Under Arrest: Policing and Everyday Life in Skid Row. Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuart, Forrest, Armenta, Amada, & Osborne, Melissa (2015) “Legal Control of Marginal Groups,” 26 Annual Review of Law and Social Science.Google Scholar
Stuart, Forrest, & Steve, Herbert (Forthcoming) “Policing (In)Equality,” in Bradford, B., Jauregui, B., Loader, I., & Steinberg, J. eds., The Sage Handbook of Global Policing. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Suttles, Gerald (1968) The Social Order of the Slum: Ethnicity and Territory in the Inner City. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Swidler, Ann (1986) “Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies.” 51 American Sociological Rev 273–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tavory, Iddo, & Timmermans, Stefan (2014) Abductive Analysis: Theorizing Qualitative Research. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Travis, Jeremy (2002) “Invisible Punishment: An Instrument of Social Exclusion,” in Mauer, M., & Chesney-Lind, M. eds., Invisible Punishment: The Collateral Consequences of Mass Imprisonment. New York: New Press.Google Scholar
Van Maanen, John (1978) “The Asshole,” in Manning, P. K., & Van Maanen, J., eds., Policing: A View from the Street. Santa Monica, CA: Goodyear Publishing.Google Scholar
Venkatesh, Sudhir (1997) “The Social Organization of Street Gang Activity in an Urban Ghetto,” 103 American J. of Sociology 82111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Venkatesh, Sudhir (2009) Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wacquant, Loïc (1998) “Negative Social Capital: State Breakdown and Social Destitution in America's Urban Core,” 13 Netherlands J. of Housing and the Built Environment 2540.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wacquant, Loïc (2003) “Ethnografeast: A Progress Report on the Practice and Promise of Ethnography,” 4 Ethnography 514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, James Q., & Kelling, George L. (1982) “Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety,” March Atlantic Monthly 2938.Google Scholar