Beyond the ghetto: police power, methamphetamine and the rural war on drugs

Viewing police as important cultural producers, we ask how police power fashions structures of feeling and social imaginaries of the "war on drugs" in small towns of the rural Midwest. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and a collection of interviews focusing on police officers’ beliefs abo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Linnemann, Travis (Author)
Contributors: Kurtz, Don L.
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2014
In: Critical criminology
Year: 2014, Volume: 22, Issue: 3, Pages: 339-355
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Keywords:
Crack Cocaine
Methamphetamine
Police Power
Police Work
Small Town
Description
Summary:Viewing police as important cultural producers, we ask how police power fashions structures of feeling and social imaginaries of the "war on drugs" in small towns of the rural Midwest. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and a collection of interviews focusing on police officers’ beliefs about the causes of crime and drug use, we locate a narrative of rural decline attributed to the producers and users of methamphetamine. We argue this narrative supports punitive and authoritarian sensibilities and broader narcopolitical projects more generally and ignores long-standing social inequalities observed in rural communities. As such, the cultural work of rural police provides important insight to the shape and direction of late-modern crime control beyond the familiar terrains of the city and its "ghetto."
Item Description:Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 353-355
ISSN:1572-9877
DOI:10.1007/s10612-013-9218-z