Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2021

Abstract

Activists for criminal justice reform must think both broadly and equitably. There is little doubt that overpolicing in some communities contributed to mass incarceration and widespread distrust of officers, which in turn limited officers' ability to solve crimes in all neighborhoods. But calls to defund focus too narrowly on overpolicing alone. Ending any interaction between government investigators and people of color is not a panacea for the myriad injustices in our system of criminal adjudication. It may leave the victims of crime in low-income neighborhoods to either accept their plight or resort to self-help, an avenue that leads to disastrous cycles of violence. And it may limit change to a narrow problem, rather than pursuing the broader course of reforms needed to tear down the myriad mistakes of the past, brick by unjust brick.

Publication Title

ConLawNOW

Volume

12

First Page

129

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