Book review: Doris Marie Provine, Monica W Varsanyi, Paul G Lewis and Scott H Decker, Policing Immigrants: Local Law Enforcement on the Front Lines
| Published date | 01 February 2018 |
| Date | 01 February 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1362480617719772 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Book reviews 135
Overall, Linnemann achieves his goal of writing a book that offers a ‘critique of the
politics, culture and ideology that underpin and animate both methamphetamine and the
war on drugs’ (p. 224). Throughout, Linnemann illustrates how simplistic binary oppo-
sites are used to construct the methamphetamine imaginary, emphasizing its power to
destroy both individuals and communities. Like the crack-baby campaign in the late
1980s/early 1990s, socioeconomic inequalities and their subsequent impact are disa-
vowed. Rather than attribute the physical and psychological destruction of meth users to
socioeconomic factors, such as poor nutrition, health care or housing, meth is blamed. In
other words, the exigencies of capitalism and its economic imperatives are prioritized,
while meth and other drugs, are attached to grand narratives surrounding crime, particu-
larly organized crime, and terrorism, which feed into the culture of fear and insecurity
that is subsequently used to justify draconian solutions to methamphetamine, and the
drug problem, more generally.
Meth Wars is essential reading for scholars and students interested in drugs, and drug
policy more generally, but its appeal is interdisciplinary and includes media, cultural
studies, politics, geography and sociology. Because of Linnemann’s engaging writing
style, however, anyone with an interest in drugs, Breaking Bad or meth, inside or outside
academia, would find this book interesting. I have but one criticism: the cover does not
do justice to the contents of the book. The cover looks like a scout badge awarded for
bob-a-job week; an amateurish design that hardly reflects the sophisticated analysis of
the book. Therefore, I advise would-be readers to refrain from judging this book by its
cover as they are in for a treat and a thoroughly enjoyable, and engaging, read.
References
Bell M (2007) The two-ness of rural life and the ends of rural scholarship. Journal of Rural Studies
23: 402–415.
Carney P (2010) Crime, punishment and the force of photographic spectacle. In: Hayward KJ and
Presdee M (eds) Framing Crime: Cultural Criminology and the Image. Oxford: Routledge,
17–35.
Carrabine E (2015) Visual criminology. In: Copes H and Miller JJ (eds) The Routledge Handbook
of Qualitative Criminology. Abingdon: Routledge, 103–121.
Foucault M (1995) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Trans. Sheridan A. New York:
Random House.
Hayward K (2012) Five spaces of cultural criminology. British Journal of criminology 52(3):
441–462.
Doris Marie Provine, Monica W Varsanyi, Paul G Lewis and Scott H Decker, Policing Immigrants:
Local Law Enforcement on the Front Lines, University of Chicago Press: Chicago, IL, 2016; 208 pp.:
9780226363189, $25.00
Reviewed by: Amada Armenta, University of Pennsylvania, USA
In Policing Immigrants: Local Law Enforcement on the Front Lines, Doris Marie
Provine, Monica W Varsanyi, Paul G Lewis and Scott H Decker provide a
To continue reading
Request your trial