Your World of Legal Intelligence
 United Kingdom | +44 (0) 20 7284 8080

Book review: Geoffrey K Ward, The Black Child-Savers: Racial Democracy & Juvenile Justice

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorNikki Jones
DOI10.1177/1362480614568002
Published date01 February 2015
Date01 February 2015
Subject MatterBook reviews
/tmp/tmp-18cdcKmAeu4hzx/input Book reviews
135
(p. 39). Drawing on a half-century of research on cognitive processes regarding uncon-
scious racial stereotypes, Epp and colleagues confirm that this institutionalized practice
provides a dangerous vehicle through which officers act on their implicit assumptions
about African-Americans as inherently more criminal than whites. In order to reverse, or
at least mitigate this phenomenon, Pulled Over advances a number of sensible police
reforms, including more stringent criteria for justifying stops, investigatory bodies to
review stop patterns, and a prohibition on searches unless based on probable cause.
Pulled Over is an exemplary piece of scholarship. Some readers may hesitate at the
fact that the analysis is limited to a comparison of African-Americans and whites. With
officers increasingly conducting stops of suspected undocumented immigrants, it seems
that the analysis might be strengthened by including the experiences of Latino drivers.
Fortunately, through their innovative design, Epp and colleagues have provided a model
for future studies to integrate a range of additional demographics and characteristics. In
this, the authors take care to explain their methods and research strategy in clear terms
that make the book accessible even to non-expert and non-academic audiences.
Geoffrey K Ward, The Black Child-Savers: Racial Democracy & Juvenile Justice, The University of
Chicago Press: Chicago, IL and London, 2012; 336 pp.: 9780226873190, $32.00 (pbk)
Reviewed by: Nikki Jones, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Geoffrey Ward’s The Black Child-Savers: Racial Democracy & Juvenile Justice is an
ambitious and far-reaching study of how race and racism shaped the development of juve-
nile justice in the United States. Ward weaves sociology, criminology, and history together
with ease in this rigorously researched account of the emergence and persistence of the
“separate and unequal” system of Jim Crow juvenile justice in northern and...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT