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H o w Yo u n g P e o p l e P e r c e i v e
C r i m e a n d J u s t i c e
AV I B R I S M A N
Geometries of Crime
Avi B risman
Geometries of Crime
How Young People Perceive Crime and Justice
Avi Brisman
School of Justice Studies
College of Justice and Safety
Eastern Kentucky University
Richmond , Kentucky , USA
Geometries of Crime
ISBN 978-1-137-54619-7 ISBN 978-1-137-54620-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-54620-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016942794
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For Joshua El-Bey and the youth of Red Hook
Acknowledgments
I n March 2008, I presented a paper at the annual meeting of the
Southern Anthropological Society entitled “Th e Th ick Fine Print of
Cliff ord Geertz: A ‘Microscopic’ Examination of Some of the Citations
and Footnotes in Th e Interpretation of Cultures .” Th e paper argued that
one could glean something of the originality of Cliff ord Geertz’s theo-
retical orientation and narrative strategy by examining his citations and
footnotes in Th e Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays . As a spring-
board for this discussion, I noted some of the literature in law and other
academic disciplines ruminating on the use of footnotes. It should come
as no surprise that footnotes have hardly been lauded for their ability to
express and communicate ideas. Indeed, John Barrymore, the American
actor of stage and screen, once observed that reading footnotes is akin to
“having to run downstairs to answer the doorbell during the fi rst night
of the honeymoon.”
A lthough I have not conducted similar research on the style and con-
tent of Acknowledgments sections of Geertz’s scholarship (or any other
scholar’s, for that matter), I would hazard a guess that many view the
Acknowledgments portion of a work with a similar lack of respect—as
the “undercard” to the “main event”—something like a cocktail hour
that can be skipped if one is short on time or, by pattern and practice,
accustomed to being fashionably late. At least, this is the conclusion
vii
viii Acknowledgments
I have drawn based on a non-randomized survey of the students I
have taught.
Given that I have devoted time and energy to researching and writing
a paper on footnotes—and have devoted countless hours to crafting foot-
notes in many of my own articles, books, and book chapters—it should
probably not astonish readers to learn that the pages of a book devoted to
Acknowledgments are among my favorite in works of non-fi ction. For it
is here that we can often glimpse something about an author’s personality
and humanity (or lack thereof) absent from, obscured by or otherwise
unavailable to us in the rest of the text. Indeed, it is in the unnumbered
or Roman-numeral pages of a text devoted to Acknowledgments that
we might understand something about those who have infl uenced the
author—people who may or may not appear in, well, the f ootnotes of the
book (or its other forms of citations and references).
I f readers of this book have made it this far, they might be disap-
pointed to learn that I make no claims, here or elsewhere, that my
Acknowledgments will convert those who disdain or simply skip
Acknowledgments. Perhaps at some juncture in my career, I will be so
lucky as to craft such an earth-shattering Acknowledgments section.
Until that day—and for present purposes—the best that I can do is to
quote from my favorite Acknowledgments.
“Acknowledgments,” Douglas E. Foley writes at (obviously) the begin-
ning of L earning Capitalist Culture: Deep in the Heart of Tejas , “usually
include long lists of people who have helped make the work possible.
One’s loving wife and long-suff ering children, and colleagues, even
if they ruthlessly penciled the manuscript, get tossed some gratitude.
Sometimes authors’ vanity gets the upper hand, and they list the tribu-
lations of life that have left their work and careers mildewing in some
musty study. Having suff ered like Hamlet, I too am sorely tempted to
gush on” (1994:xiii). Foley does not, but he does allow himself to thank
some twenty-fi ve friends and colleagues.
Th is is not what makes Foley’s Acknowledgments section brilliant
(although it did resonate with me more than the opening sentences of
other Acknowledgments sections that I have read). Rather, it was his
Acknowledgments ix
comments in the second-to-last paragraph of the section: “acknowledg-
ments usually thank the ‘people’ [one has studied] for their friendship
and free information” (1994:xiv). Foley does thank his research subjects/
informants, but he also admits that his book “criticizes what they take as
good and natural” and expresses the hope that his book will be viewed
less as a stab in the back than as a “loving critique.”
I, too, wish to thank the “people” I have studied. Th is book would not
have been possible without the kids with whom I spent many afternoons.
And I would not have had the privilege of meeting them and learning
about their participation with the Red Hook Youth Court (RHYC)—
one of the youth programs that I studied during the course of my doc-
toral fi eldwork at Red Hook Community Justice Center (RHCJC)—had
it not been for the generosity of numerous current and former RHCJC
staff members (such as Gerianne Abriano, Julian Adler, Liz Bender, James
Brodick, the Honorable Alex M. Calabrese, Sabrina Carter, Jessica Colon,
Sharese Crouther, Leroy Davis, Mouhamadou Diaman, Kate Doniger,
Melissa Gelber, Shante Martin, Rachel Swaner, Ericka Tapia, Brett Taylor,
Elise White, and many others) who facilitated my early interactions with
the kids and answered many of my queries about the RHYC and other
youth programs at the RHCJC. While I recognize that this book may, in
parts, criticize what RHYC members and RHCJC staff members “take as
good,” like Foley with L earning Capitalist Culture , I hope that this book
will be viewed less as a stab in the back than as “loving critique.”
Th e fi eld research for this book was funded by the National Science
Foundation (Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant,
Law and Social Sciences Program, Proposal No. 0961077; Doctoral
Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, Cultural Anthropology
Program, Proposal No. 0961077). Additional support came from an
Oberlin College Alumni Fellowship.
R eferences to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of
writing. Neither the author nor Palgrave Macmillan is responsible for
URLs that may have expired or changed since the book was prepared.
F inally, I would like to express my gratitude to the following publish-
ers for permission to reprint sections of previously published materials:
