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Intersectional Criminologies for the Contemporary Moment: Crucial Questions of Power, Praxis and Technologies of Control

DOI:10.1007/s10612-019-09441-z
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Kathryn Henne at Australian National University
Kathryn Henne
Emily Troshynski at University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Emily Troshynski
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Abstract

This article reflects on the growing acceptance of intersectional criminology alongside emergent challenges of the contemporary moment. In light of social changes, the article asks: What is important about intersectionality and its relationship to criminology? How might we sustain and nurture these crucial dimensions and connections? Exploring answers to these questions, we consider how to retain intersectional commitments in areas of increasing importance, such as ubiquitous surveillance and technologies of policing. In discussing how we might examine and unpack the workings of interlocking systems of oppression and their effects, this article addresses how intersectional criminologists might reflect more critically on their methodologies to ensure robust analysis and incorporate frameworks that better capture the technosocial entanglements emblematic of ongoing shifts in social control. After reviewing approaches for doing so, the article concludes with a reflection on implications for intersectional criminological praxis.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Critical Criminology (2019) 27:55–71
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-019-09441-z
1 3
Intersectional Criminologies fortheContemporary Moment:
Crucial Questions ofPower, Praxis andTechnologies
ofControl
KathrynHenne1,2· EmilyI.Troshynski3
Published online: 19 March 2019
© Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract
This article reflects on the growing acceptance of intersectional criminology alongside
emergent challenges of the contemporary moment. In light of social changes, the arti-
cle asks: What is important about intersectionality and its relationship to criminology?
How might we sustain and nurture these crucial dimensions and connections? Exploring
answers to these questions, we consider how to retain intersectional commitments in areas
of increasing importance, such as ubiquitous surveillance and technologies of policing.
In discussing how we might examine and unpack the workings of interlocking systems of
oppression and their effects, this article addresses how intersectional criminologists might
reflect more critically on their methodologies to ensure robust analysis and incorporate
frameworks that better capture the technosocial entanglements emblematic of ongoing
shifts in social control. After reviewing approaches for doing so, the article concludes with
a reflection on implications for intersectional criminological praxis.
Introduction: Taking Stock atCritical Junctures
In recent years, the rise of authoritarianism in various parts of the world has been met with
protest movements, as well as calls for inclusion, mobilization and resistance. Rightfully
so: in the United States (US) alone, the Trump administration has signaled its support for
establishing a registry to track Muslims, attempted to enact a federal ban against transgen-
der persons serving in the US military, and committed significant resources to enhancing
surveillance infrastructure aimed at racialized minorities.1 All the while, anti-immigrant,
anti-Semitic, homophobic, Islamophobic, misogynistic, racist, and sexist attacks have
risen since the 2016 US presidential election (Southern Poverty Law Center 2016). In this
* Kathryn Henne
khenne@uwaterloo.ca
1 University ofWaterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
2 The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT , Australia
3 University ofNevada, LasVegas, USA
1 Following Hochman (2018), we use “racialized” to acknowledge that individuals, groups, and structures
become racialized through worldly processes, not as a result of their inherent attributes.
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... Furthermore, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other legal organizations have proposed that these technologies broadly can infringe upon citizen's Fourth Amendment rights, which mandate that police cannot stop a person beyond "reasonable suspicion" (ACLU, 2016). While the SSL specifically has been recently decommissioned, predictive policing is a growing multibillion-dollar industry (Wang, 2018) and empirical research is needed to further critique how these tools may exacerbate preexisting, racialized inequities in the criminal legal system (Henne & Troshynski, 2019). ...
... Holding race at the center of analysis allows one to examine how racial social hierarchy is maintained through multiple systems of oppression and orients us to investigate bias, discrimination, and their consequences among racialized communities (Bonilla-Silva, 2002). At the same time, CRT allows for intersectional analysis, i.e., examining race in the context of other social identities and contexts to understand the unique experiences of individuals at multiple margins of society (Crutchfield et al., 2017;Dottolo & Stewart, 2008;Henne & Troshynski, 2019). ...
... Amongst researchers, legal scholars, and abolitionist organizers, there are many arguments and critiques 1 Latine is a gender-inclusive and culturally and linguistically relevant term for those of Latin American heritage (Blas, 2019). against predictive policing, yet advocates claim that there are no empirically associated negative drawbacks (Meijer & Wessels, 2019) and critical empirical analyses of these programs are lacking (Henne & Troshynski, 2019). Thus, our analyses assess whether the SSL risk score is racialized while accounting for the local spatial, socioeconomic, and racial characteristics. ...
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