Hip-Hop Justice

Has hip-hop changed the way we look at crime and punishment?

An article published this summer by University of Utah law professor andré douglas pond cummings argues that i has. Hip-hop first arrived in New York City in the 1970s, the same time our prisons began to grow exponentially. Now, by openly challenging the failed theories of deterrence, retribution and incapacitation in this prison explosion, hip-hop presents one of the most successful - and promising - challenges to the prison state. In "Thug Life: Hip Hop's Curious Relationship with Criminal Justice," Cummings writes:

Hip hop has influenced an entire generation toward a profound distrust of the criminal justice system in the U.S., to the point that imprisonment is respected, if not lauded, and deterrence has lost any realistic value for those that engage in “criminal” behavior.

Cummings leans heavily in his essay on Paul Butler's 2004 law review article: “Much Respect:  Toward a Hip Hop Theory of Punishment,” where Butler writes:

Hip-hop exposes the current punishment regime as profoundly unfair. It demonstrates this view by, if not glorifying all lawbreakers, at least not viewing all criminals with the disgust which the law seeks to attach to them. Hip-hop points out the incoherence of the law's construct of crime, and it attacks the legitimacy of the system. Its message has the potential to transform justice in the United States.

I wrote a few months ago about Butler's book "Let's Get Free," where he argues that progressives shouldn't be prosecutors and expands on the hypothesis launched in his 2004 article. The theories raised by these two professors recognize an important truth - the hip-hop community is largely responsible for raising the public's awareness of inequalities in our criminal justice system. Now it'll take involvement and organization from the world of hip hop coming together with other reform communities to make real change happen.

Like Dead Prez say, this is bigger than hip hop. And since this blog doesn't have nearly enough music, here's the Dead Prez video, "Hip-Hop:"

Photo above: Jay-Z by mikebarry.