Scholarship@WashULaw

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2023

Publication Title

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Abstract

Over the past decade, activists and academics have celebrated the rise of the so-called “progressive prosecutor” movement. District attorney candidates—often former public defenders or civil rights lawyers—have promised to use prosecutorial discretion to address the injustices of the criminal system. A proliferation of such campaigns, and the electoral successes of some of these candidates have raised questions about progressive prosecution: what does it actually mean to be a progressive prosecutor? Does progressive prosecution work? Do progressive candidates follow through on campaign promises? And, how enthusiastic should defense attorneys, reformers, and critics of the carceral state be about progressive prosecution? The election of “progressive prosecutors” also has led to backlash, with resistance from police departments and efforts to impeach or recall prosecutors seen as “soft on crime.” In this Essay, I examine media and popular reactions to progressive prosecutors and what those reactions reveal about societal understandings of prosecutors and their function. Looking to the recall election and ouster of public defender-turned San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin as a case study, I focus on popular expectations of what it means to be a prosecutor. I argue that the specter of governmental failure and urban disorder continues to haunt contemporary discussions of prosecutorial policies. Media narratives about declining urban quality of life frame the issues—from homelessness and drug addiction to interpersonal violence—as crises that must be resolved via criminal law. Whether prosecutors are imagined as tough-on-crime punishers tasked with administering harsh justice or progressive regulators tasked with providing services and addressing structural inequality, they remain some of the most visible state actors on the local level. And so, for each issue—each crisis—the prosecutor becomes the responsible party and the face of the state’s response. Ultimately, I express concern about an overreliance on prosecutors. I argue that the common understanding of the DA’s office as the place where the government solves social problems will remain a significant impediment to any project of dismantling the carceral state.

Keywords

Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice Reform, Abolition, Prosecutors, Progressive Prosecutors, Governing Through Crime

Publication Citation

Benjamin Levin, Prosecuting the Crisis, 50 Fordham Urb. L.J. 989 (2023)

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