Professor Matthew Clair, Stanford University
Assistant Professor of Sociology

Title:  Privilege and Punishment in an Era of Mass Criminalization

Abstract: The number of Americans arrested, brought to court, and incarcerated has skyrocketed in recent decades. Criminal defendants come from all races and economic walks of life, but they experience punishment in vastly different ways. How and why is the court process unequal? This talk draws on findings from my book Privilege and Punishment: How Race and Class Matter in Criminal Court (Princeton University Press, November 2020). Drawing on fieldwork and interviews in the Boston court system, I show that lawyers and judges often silence, coerce, and punish disadvantaged defendants when they try to learn their legal rights and advocate for themselves. These dynamics reveal how unwritten institutional norms devalue the exercise of legal rights among the disadvantaged, and that ensuring effective legal representation is no guarantee of justice. I discuss implications for cultural sociology, relational theory, and theories of institutional discrimination. Drawing on other research and activism on the courts as a tool of racialized social control, I conclude with reflections on the possibilities of criminal court abolition.