Leiden University Student Repository

Brinker, Isa den (2022)

Perpetuating the Racialization of Crime: Race, The Prison Industrial Complex, and the Case of Emanuel Jackson

Bachelor thesis | International Studies (BA)

The United States has a long record of racial inequality that has been perpetuated over time. It is well established that this has had a significant influence on the way in which the American justice system operates, resulting in the diverging treatment of different races. This thesis will be looking at the treatment of one such racial group and aims to determine how black men are disproportionately targeted by the American Prison Industrial Complex (PIC). To ascertain in what specific ways the PIC has disparaged black men, this thesis first supplies an overview of the already existing academic literature surrounding the PIC and America’s history concerning racism. Finally, this thesis conducts a comparison of the treatment of two Capitol rioters; a black man called Emanuel Jackson and a white man called Eric Gavelek Munchel. The results indicate that America has much work that remains to be done in order to constitute a justice system based on impartiality and equality.

United States

Prison Industrial Complex

criminal justice

institutional racism

Critical Race Theory

bail system

Capitol riot

Emanuel Jackson

Author

Brinker, Isa den

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

North America

Supervisors

Kessel, L. van

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en