Co-authors: Dr. Allison Goldberg and Kaisa Sherwood
Abstract:
Although prosecutors have traditionally contributed to mass incarceration and racial disparities, a cohort of “progressive” prosecutors who pledge to advance criminal justice reform have been elected in growing numbers since 2016, a timeframe tied to the Movement for Black Lives. While a burgeoning body of research investigates progressive prosecutors’ impacts on crime rates and reform goals, it neglects the broader potential and limits of these officials: their impact on the field of prosecution. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, which considers actors embedded in a web of competition over a social arena’s rules and beliefs, this study examines if and how progressive prosecutors have challenged their field’s norms, resources, and relationships. Through natural language processing, we examine about 10,000 media headlines about progressive versus nonprogressive prosecutors, alongside 500 qualitatively coded media articles. We find that while progressives attempted to develop non-penal alternatives that invest in rather than criminalize communities most harmed by mass incarceration, countermovements against them have stifled reform efforts. Progressives have faced resistance from police unions, assistant prosecutors, and right-wing national officials, whose contention in the field have renewed and reified tough-on-crime logics that fuel the racialized harms of mass incarceration.
Abstract:
Although prosecutors have traditionally contributed to mass incarceration and racial disparities, a cohort of “progressive” prosecutors who pledge to advance criminal justice reform have been elected in growing numbers since 2016, a timeframe tied to the Movement for Black Lives. While a burgeoning body of research investigates progressive prosecutors’ impacts on crime rates and reform goals, it neglects the broader potential and limits of these officials: their impact on the field of prosecution. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, which considers actors embedded in a web of competition over a social arena’s rules and beliefs, this study examines if and how progressive prosecutors have challenged their field’s norms, resources, and relationships. Through natural language processing, we examine about 10,000 media headlines about progressive versus nonprogressive prosecutors, alongside 500 qualitatively coded media articles. We find that while progressives attempted to develop non-penal alternatives that invest in rather than criminalize communities most harmed by mass incarceration, countermovements against them have stifled reform efforts. Progressives have faced resistance from police unions, assistant prosecutors, and right-wing national officials, whose contention in the field have renewed and reified tough-on-crime logics that fuel the racialized harms of mass incarceration.