A Feminist Critique of Police Stops

If you've dreamed of walking free of sexual harassment, you will understand why it's time to end stop-and-frisk policing.

Josephine Ross (Author)

9781108482707, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 December 2020

250 pages
15 x 23 x 2 cm, 0.51 kg

'This book will be of interest to scholars in law, policy, race and ethnic relations, sociology, human rights, and social justice, and should become one of the key frameworks from which interactions with police are understood.' Eileen Avery, Ethnic and Racial Studies

A Feminist Critique of Police Stops examines the parallels between stop-and-frisk policing and sexual harassment. An expert whose writing, teaching and community outreach centers on the Constitution's limits on police power, Howard Law Professor Josephine Ross, argues that our constitutional rights are a mirage. In reality, we can't say no when police seek to question or search us. Building on feminist principles, Ross demonstrates why the Supreme Court got it wrong when it allowed police to stop, search, and sometimes strip-search people and call it consent. Using a wide range of sources - including her law students' experiences with police, news stories about Eric Garner, and Sandra Bland, social science and the work of James Baldwin - Ross sheds new light on policing. This book should be read by everyone interested in how Court-approved police stops sap everyone's constitutional rights and how this form of policing can be eliminated.

Introduction
Part I. Bye, Bye Bill of Rights: 1. Waive your rights: that's how stops and frisks were meant to work
2. The most dangerous right: walking away from an officer
3. Consenting to searches: what we can learn from feminist critiques of sexual assault laws
4. Punishing disrespect: no free speech allowed here
5. Beyond Miranda's reach: how stop-and-frisk undermines the right to silence
Part II. The Fallout: 6. The frisk: 'injuries to manhood' and to womanhood
7. Invisible scars: Terry's psychological toll
8. High court camouflage: how the Supreme Court hides police aggression and racial animus.

Subject Areas: Police law & police procedures [LNFX5], Criminal law & procedure [LNF], Constitutional & administrative law [LND], Gender & the law [LAQG], Law & society [LAQ], Political structure & processes [JPH], Crime & criminology [JKV], Feminism & feminist theory [JFFK]