Facing Violent Crime Among Latinos

This updated and expanded new edition resumes the theme of the first edition, and the findings reveal that race, ethnicity, gender, class, and several other variables continue to play a significant and consequential role in the legal decision-making process. The book is structured into three sections, each of which corresponds to a different body of work on Latinos. Section One explores the historical dynamics and influence of ethnicity in law enforcement, and focuses on how ethnicity impacts policing field practices, such as traffic stops, use of force, and the subsequent actions that police departments have employed to alleviate these problems. A detailed examination of critical issues facing Latino defendants seeks to better understand the law enforcement process. The history of immigration laws as it pertains to Mexicans and Latinos explains how Mexicans have been excluded from the United States through anti-immigrant legislation. Latino officers must cope with structural and political issues, the community, and media, as these practices and experiences within the American police system are explored. Section Two focuses on the repressive practices against Mexicans that resulted in executions, vigilantism, and mass expulsions. The topic of Latinos and the Fourth Amendment reveals that the constitutional right of people to be protected against unreasonable searches and seizures has been eviscerated for Latinos, and particularly for Mexicans. Possible remedies to existing shortcomings of the court system when processing indigent defendants are presented. Section Three studies the issue of Hispanics and the penal system. The ethnic realities of life behind bars, probation and parole, the legacy of capital punishment, and life after prison are discussed. Section Four addresses the globalization of Latinos, social control, and the future of Latinos in the U.S. Criminal justice system. Lastly, the race and ethnic experience through the lens of science, law, and the American imagination, are explored, concluding with policy recommendations for social and criminal justice reform, and ultimately humanizing differences. Written for professionals and students of law enforcement, this book will promote the understanding of the historical legacy of brutality, manipulation, oppression, marginalization, prejudice, discrimination, power and control, and white America's continued fear about racial and ethnic minorities.

Latino Homicide is the first empirically based, but readable book for courses to counter the conventional wisdom that immigrant populations only contribute crime to their communities. For this second edition, Martinez further emphasizes his argument with updated data and the addition of a new city, San Antonio. With fascinating case studies from police reports and actual cases from six varied cities, Latino homicide rates are revealed to be markedly lower than one would expect, given the economic deprivation of these urban areas. Far from dangerous or criminal, these communities often have exceptionally strong social networks precisely because of their shared immigrant experiences. Martinez skillfully refutes negative stereotypes in a coherent and critically rigorous analysis of the issues.

This unique compilation of essays and entries provides critical insights into the Latino/a experience with the U.S. criminal justice system. Concerns about immigration's relationship to crime make accurate information and critical analysis of the utmost importance. Latinos and Criminal Justice: An Encyclopedia promotes understanding of Latinas and Latinos and the U.S. criminal justice system, at the same time dispelling popular misconceptions about this population and criminal activity in the United States. Unlike a traditional encyclopedia comprised solely of A–Z entries, this work consists of two parts. Part I offers detailed essays on particularly important topics. Part II provides brief, A–Z entries. Topics are crossreferenced to enable easy research. Among the wide range of topics covered are policing and police misconduct, incarceration, the war on drugs, gangs, border crime, and racial profiling. Historically important issues and events relative to the Latino experience of criminal justice in the United States are also included, as are key legal cases.

Academic Paper from the year 2016 in the subject Sociology - Law and Delinquency, grade: 10.0, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey - Newark (School of Criminal Justice), course: Racial, Ethnic and Religious Diversity and Public Policy in America, language: English, abstract: This research paper examines the relationship of undocumented Latinos to crime in the United States. Many empirical studies in the past years argued that undocumented immigrants have been a reason in the decrease in crime rates over the past forty years. Communities with a high number of undocumented immigrants tend to have very low crime rates compared to those of native-born Americans. Already deteriorated neighbourhoods, where undocumented newcomers establish their homes, show a significant decrease in crime. Both the spur of immigration and the decrease in crime rates have run parallel to each other since the 1980s. However, in the last decade, a mass incarceration of undocumented Latinos was found in the U.S. corrections system due to an overwhelming target of minority groups and tough legislations passed by the U.S. government.

Historically, most studies that have explored the experiences of criminal defendants in the American criminal Justice system, whether it is in the area of policing, courts, or corrections, have focused almost exclusively on race. Hispanics have resided in the United States since 1598 and recently bypassed African Americans in the general population for the first time in history. In this context, this book will examine the Hispanic experience in the criminal justice system by exploring a series of crucial factors. Major topics include: Hispanics and the American police, policing the barrios, immigration lockdown, the dynamics of arresting Hispanics, criminalizing Mexican identity, Latinos and the 4th Amendment, the exclusion of Latinos from Grand and Petit juries, the penal system and the critical issues facing Hispanic prisoners, probation and parole, the legacy of capital punishment, life after prison, and the dynamics of education and globalization in America. This text presents a variety of studies that illustrate alternative ways of interpreting crime, punishment, safety, equality, and justice. The findings from these studies reveal that race, ethnicity, gender, and class continue to play a significant role in the legal decision-making process. Hispanics in the U.S. Criminal Justice System is written for professionals and students of criminal justice and law enforcement in helping to understand the historical legacy of brutality, manipulation, oppression, marginalization, prejudice, discrimination, power and control, and white America’s continued fear about racial and ethnic minorities.

This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. During the 5-year period from 2001 to 2005, comparative non-fatal violent victimizations showed: Black males were more vulnerable to violent victimization than black females; Younger blacks were generally more likely than older blacks to be victims of violence; Blacks in households with lower annual incomes were at a greater risk of violence than those in households with higher annual incomes; Blacks living in urban areas were more likely than those in suburban or rural areas to be victims of violence. Black victims of homicide were most likely to be male and between ages 17 and 29. Homicides against blacks were more likely than those against whites to occur in highly populated areas, including cities and suburbs. Charts and tables.

How Latina girls and women become entangled in the criminal justice system Despite representing roughly 16 percent of incarcerated women, Latina women and girls are often rendered invisible in accounts of American crime and punishment. In Latinas in the Criminal Justice System, Vera Lopez and Lisa Pasko bring together a group of distinguished scholars to provide a more complete, nuanced picture of Latinas as victims, offenders, and targets of deportation. Featuring Cecilia Menjívar, Lisa M. Martinez, Alice Cepeda, and others, this volume examines the complex histories, backgrounds, and struggles of Latinas in the criminal justice system. Contributors show us how Latinas encounter a variety of justice systems, including juvenile detention, adult court and corrections, and immigration and customs enforcement. Topics include Latina victims of crime and their perceptions of police officers; the impact of the US “crimmigration” system on undocumented Latina women; and help-seeking among Latina victims of intimate partner violence. Additionally, key chapters highlight the emergence of legal reforms, community mobilization efforts, and gender-sensitive alternatives to incarceration designed to increase equitable outcomes. Lopez and Pasko broaden our understanding of how gender, ethnicity, and legal status uniquely shape the experiences of system-impacted Latina girls and women. Latinas in the Criminal Justice System is a timely and much-needed resource for academics, activists, and policymakers.