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viiiContributorsCassandra Chaney, PhD, is a Professor in Child and Family Studies at Louisiana StateUniversity (LSU). Professor Chaney is broadly interested in the dynamics of AfricanAmerican family life, yet under this umbrella she examines the narratives of African Americans in dating, cohabiting, and married relationships, with a particular interest in: relationship formation, maintenance, and stability; how religiosity and spirituality support AfricanAmericans; and representation of African American couples and families (e.g., structuraland functional dynamics) in popular forms of mass media (i.e., television shows, movies,music videos, and song lyrics). In addition, Professor Chaney examines the unique sociohistorical challenges for Black families and her scholarship roots in a strengths-based perspective, and emphasizes the various ways that Black families remain resilient in the face ofmultiple challenges.Crystal S. Collier received her PsyD in Clinical Psychology at Wright State UniversitySchool of Professional Psychology in Dayton, Ohio. She is currently the Program Dean atthe Florida School of Professional Psychology (FSPP) at Argosy University, Tampa. Shehas expertise and teaches in the areas of diversity, family, and child therapy. Her theoreticalorientation is primarily influenced by assimilative psychodynamics and family systems. Priorto teaching at Argosy University, Tampa, Dr. Collier taught at Wright State University.She has examined the doctoral-level experiences of African American females in clinicalpsychology, diversity training, and the prevention of conduct disorders in preschool populations. She is interested in working with diverse populations of children, adolescents, families, and parents. She is professionally affiliated with the Association of Black Psychologists(ABPsi), the National Council of Schools and Programs in Professional Psychology(NSCPP), and the American Psychological Association (APA). Within the profession, sheconducts workshops and seminars locally and nationally on a broad range of topics associated with her interests.LaTrelle D. Jackson, PhD, ABPP, is a Professor at Wright State University in the School ofProfessional Psychology. Her areas of interest include community engagement/asset-basedassessment, youth advocacy, diversity issues, consultation, supervision, parent empowerment,group therapy, geriatric psychology, program development, career evaluation/planning, forensic psychology, student affairs/development, and higher education administration.Danielle Graddick, MA, PsyM, is a fourth-year doctoral student at Wright State Universityin the School of Professional Psychology. She received a Master’s in forensic psychology fromGeorge Washington University and plans to pursue a career as a forensic evaluator.Christopher St. Vil, MSW, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo Schoolof Social Work. Prior to his appointment at the University at Buffalo, Dr. St. Vil held a postdoctoral fellow position in the Department of African American Studies at the University ofMaryland, College Park. His current research focuses on trauma and the experiences of victimsof violent injury. Currently he is evaluating the effectiveness of a Violence InterventionProgram in reducing rates of violent trauma recidivism in Metropolitan Washington, DC, andis the recipient of a Robert Wood Johnson New Connections grant to conduct a systematicreview on hospital-based trauma recidivism. Dr. St. Vil received his PhD from the HowardUniversity School of Social Work and his Master of Social Work (MSW) from the StateUniversity of New York at Stony Brook, and is a former Graduate Education Diversity fellowof the American Evaluation Association.

ContributorsixSean Wilson, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at WilliamPaterson University. He earned his BS and MS in criminal justice at New Jersey City University and his PhD in the Administration of Justice at Texas Southern University. His researchinterests are radical criminology, prisoner reentry, critical policing, penology, race, class,gender and crime, community justice, social justice, and ethnographic methodologies. He isvery active in progressive circles and has presented at several academic conferences throughoutthe US.CalvinJohn Smiley, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department of HunterCollege, CUNY. Smiley’s research focuses on issues of race, class, gender, urban inequality,and justice. He has been published in scholarly journals such as The Prison Journal, Punishment& Society, and Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment. More about Smiley’s academic research, scholarship, and academic interests can be found at: www.cjsmiley.com.

INTRODUCTIONThe time has come for there to be an attempt at intersectionalizing Black males and justicewithin academic literature that examines crime and justice. This edited volume builds on previously published works (e.g., Butler, 2017; Davis 2017; Lemelle, 1997). This book exploresthe extent to which mainstream critiques in criminology and related fields are severely limitedin understanding the intersectional realities of Black males and their relationship with thecriminal justice system, and the consequential impact this contact has had on their respectivefamilies and communities. Relying on a multidisciplinary frame of inquiry, and critical perspectives, this volume methodically reviews the relevance of contemporary practices of criminaljustice processes and policies.The chapters in this volume are epistemically grounded in Black maleness—which is to saythey are written from the vantage point of the Black male experience. Great attention waspaid to capturing the human expression and experience of Black males as they matriculatethrough some of the key stages of the criminal justice system, but also once they are out of thesystem. Some chapters are empirical while others provide academic synthetization of scholarlyknowledge. In this current era of major social upheaval and the advent of Black Lives Matterand other social advocacy groups, foremost attention is being paid to intersectional analyses ofoppressed people under apparatuses of state violence and repression. For instance, the incomparable Kimberle Crenshaw, in response to a lack of attention to Black women and girls indialogues around state violence intervened with the #SayHerName hashtag. Crenshaw, onceagain, was reminding commentators of the importance of intersectional analyses that foreground the lived experiences of individual groups (or categories) as opposed to the one-sizefits-all approaches typically adopted in examinations around state violence and the broaderBlack community. This volume, however, looks at Black males, in particular because, althoughmuch attention is paid to this group, in-depth analyses have yet to be brought to the forefrontregarding their experiences and matriculation through the criminal justice system.This volume breaks from traditional commentaries because it is epistemically grounded inBlack maleness as a social location of immense oppression, repression, and violence. RusselBrown (1998) developed the concept, “criminalblackman,” in which she highlighted thatBlack men are conceptualized as inherent criminals. She ties the criminalblackman concept toslavery in its immediate aftermath when allegations of rape against white women were used asa means of violent and often deadly forms of social control over Black male bodies. She

Introductionxiposited that this depiction of Black men as perpetual criminals has ascended to contemporarysociety with immeasurable consequences. This stereotype of Black men as criminals has discursively contributed to their mass incarceration and the disproportionate share of police brutalityagainst Black males.Russel-Brown’s concept of the criminalblackman is similarly situated alongside Skolnick’s(2011) term “the symbolic assailant.” He describes the symbolic assailant as a figment of a policeofficer’s imagination, a concoction of criminality manifested from hours of patrolling neighborhoods with the goal of needing to justify their existence as crime-fighters. Thus, the symbolicassailant is a psychological byproduct of chronic suspiciousness that officers learn to practice whileon the job. When one conjoins the criminalblackman with the symbolic assailant s/he is paintingthe socio-racial historical and contemporary experience of Black males in American society. Blackmales often must navigate through those two prisms of extreme suspicion, a reality that JonesBrown (2007) has argued makes them forever the symbolic assailant. Because of the legacy of slavery and the contemporary baggage of racism, Black males find themselves unable to emancipatethemselves from the suspicion of inherent criminality imposed upon them during slavery.This volume attempts to unpack the above concepts by looking at how Black men experiencethe criminal justice system and the collateral consequences these experiences have on their familiesand communities. Chowdhury and Butler provide a concise but comprehensive review of punishment practices against Black males. They foreground the chapter in the legacy of slavery whileworking through the civil rights era and to contemporary society. Williams presents a qualitativeexamination of narratives collected in Ferguson, Missouri, around Black male experiences with thepolice and uses Elijah Anderson’s concept the “Iconic Ghetto” and Cruse’s idea of “Internal Colonialism” to make sense of participants’ accounts. Barthé provides a quintessentially historical assessment of persisting colonial violence against Black bodies and its particular impact on Black males.He moves from the colonial era up through contemporary instances of such violence, paying closeattention to the collusion between the state and culture. Robertson and Chaney empirically examine perceptions of Black male disproportionality in the criminal justice system on the internet. Collier takes aim at the courts and uncovers the subtextual violence that Black males often face in trialproceedings. She carefully covers the role of judges, prosecutors, and juries in the suffering ofBlack males at the hands of American courts. Jackson and Graddick delve into prison health discourses and their effects on Black males. St. Vil challenges readers to consider the mental healthimplications behind mass incarceration and its deleterious effects on Black males. Wilson takes aimby empirically assessing some of the trying issues around Black males and reintegration; whereasSmiley provides an in-depth analysis of racial politics and policies of reentry. Kniffley closes thebook with a chapter on how punishment rendered to Black males constitutes an institutionalizedmental trauma that is passed down through generational transmission.ReferencesButler, P. (2017). Chokehold: Policing Black Men. New York: New Press.Davis, A. J. (2017). Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment. New York: Pantheon Books.Jones-Brown, D. (2007). Forever the Symbolic Assailant: The More Things Change, The More TheyRemain the Same. Criminology & Public Policy, 6(1), 103–122.Lemelle, A. J. (1997). Black Male Deviance. Westport, CT: Praeger.Russell, K. K. (1998). The Color of Crime: Racial Hoaxes, White Fear, Black Protectionism, Police Harassment,and Other Macroaggressions. New York: NYU Press.Skolnick, J. (2011). Justice without Trial: Law Enforcement in Democratic Society (4th edition). New Orleans:Quid Pro.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSWe would like to give thanks to the Consortium on Race, Gender and Ethnicity (CRGE) atthe University of Maryland, College Park that brought us together via the Intersectional Qualitative Research Methods Institute (IQRMI) back in 2015. We give thanks to the faculty andstaff affiliated with CRGE for their hard work and we hope that the consortium’s work maycontinue well into the future such that other underrepresented minority scholars may takeadvantage of its content and opportunities. Our collective effort in this project is the sum oftools learned at IQRMI.We also give thanks to our family and friends who supported us throughout this process.We would be remiss not to thank our contributors, without their efforts the book would notbe complete.

1LAYING THE FOUNDATION OFPUNISHMENT AGAINST BLACK MALESLiza Chowdhury and Rashanna ButlerIntroductionIn 2016, the case of Brock Turner made headlines around the country because it furthered theargument about the disparity of punishment that continues to over incarcerate and disenfranchiseblack men. Brock Turner, a white male, was convicted of three counts of sexual assault and, despite compelling evidence and a heartfelt letter from the victim, sentencing Judge Aaron Perskydecided to administer a lenient sentence. According to the Atlantic, in Judge Persky’s dissent, hementioned that a prison sentence would have “a severe impact” and “adverse collateral consequences” on Turner. Judge Persky accurately acknowledged the consequences of incarceration andthe difficulties a person faces once they fall within the web of the criminal justice system. However,historically, this country has not afforded black men the same form of empathy.Black men continue to be overrepresented in the prison system (Kilgore, 2015). The punitivenature of the criminal justice system has had an extremely negative impact on the economic andpolitical growth of African American men since the abolition of slavery. The collateral damage ofmass incarceration often found in the lives of African American men has included loss of votingpower, lack of economic stability, and estrangement from their families. In addition, individualdamage involves a depreciation of earning potential (Roberts, 2004), health issues (Morehart,2014), homelessness (Smith & Hattery, 2010)b being stamped with stigmatizing labels (Besemer,Farrington, & Bijleveld, 2017). Black men have suffered the demoralization and extreme punishment inflicted by the never-ending surveillance of the criminal justice system. At every stage of thecriminal justice system, they are more likely to face different outcomes from those of their Whitemale counterparts. This chapter will highlight the history of punishment towards black men thathas led to our current mass incarceration system. It will also explain disparate punishment outcomesblack men face at various stages of the criminal justice system.The Foundation of Mass Incarceration: The Racist Legacy of SlaveryThe carceral state of African American men is deeply rooted in American history. The UnitedStates has a racist legacy in the treatment of black men that has continued to punish themsince the beginning of this country (Wacquant, 2001). Even the writers of the constitutionwere slave owners. While they were writing about the importance of equality and freedom

She received a Master's in forensic psychology from George Washington University and plans to pursue a career as a forensic evaluator. Christopher St. Vil, MSW, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work. Prior to his appointment at the University at Buffalo, Dr. St. Vil held a post-