Book Review: You can’t stop the revolution: Community disorder and social ties in post-Ferguson America

• Published date: 01 December 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734016820917744
• Author: Danye Medhin
• Date: 01 December 2023
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

are hostages or victims. The Assault of Tracy Thurman and subsequent civil rights action in 1983,

which led to more severe penalties for domestic violence crimes. The Leicestershire murders in

1986, which led to greater application of DNA testing to identify assailants. The murder of

Rebecca Schaeffer in 1989, which led to public calls for laws prohibiting stalking and enhanced

privacy protections, and the murders of Polly Klaas and Kimber Reynolds in 1993 that lead to

three strikes sentencing. The last two chapters review tragedies of the 2000s and include the 9/11

terrorists attacks, which lead to vast expansion of federal police and surveillance power under the

war on terror as well as the 2001 Enron scandal that created political pressures for f‌inance reform

including the Sarbanes–Oxley act.

The book concludes with a single chapter that attempts to create a framework for understanding

the various tragedies and their reforms. The focus is on two major questions: (1) which tragedies

trigger crimes? (2) which trigger crimes catch public winds and impact policy?

To answer the f‌irst question, the authors argue that trigger crimes occur from one of the three cir-

cumstances: (1) new problems emerge and become noticed by the public, (2) new solutions surface to

existing problems which could not previously be addressed, or (3) social norms shift in order to iden-

tify behavior as problematic that were previously tolerated. To answer the second question, the

authors argue that broad coverage, dramatic images, motivated actors (public or governmental), or

simply “luck”lead to policy change or impact.

From a storytelling perspective, this book is quite engaging. The historical account is front and

center, which makes it very accessible to the reader. This accessibility makes it a perfect book for

those who have a general interest in the events and their subsequent reforms. However, in many sec-

tions, the focus on the story excludes a broader discussion of the policy implications and the politics

involved with public outrage, and these topics might be of more interest to academic readers. Given

the content of the book, the authors may have missed an opportunity, as the record of scholarly pub-

lishing between the two authors indicates this is within their area of expertise.

Overall, this work provides a historical accounting of key events and how public outrage can

inform social changes. The emphasis is on the stories—and not necessarily an analysis of the

change itself (e.g., policy, law, and practice). The painstaking detail of facts and circumstances is

accessible and interesting to readers. For educators, this work could be used in classes where the

instructor aims to highlight the social component that underpins events and policies that create crit-

ical legal change. However, the work lacks a broader sociolegal theory and analysis for the policy

outcomes to really be at the core of this book. Thus, this literature should be paired with a text

that focuses on the broader mechanisms of policy analysis and the impacts of those policies.

Boyles, A. S. (2019).

You can’t stop the revolution: Community disorder and social ties in post-Ferguson America. University of California

Press. 240 pp. $29.95. ISBN: 9780520970502.

Reviewed by: Danye Medhin, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734016820917744

You Can’t Stop the Revolution: Community Disorder and Social Ties in Post-Ferguson America

by Andrea Boyles chronicles a 3-year ethnographic f‌ield study conducted during the years following

Michael Brown’s murder. The study included a total of 125 participants distributed among three sep-

arate groups: protestors, in-depth interviewees, and focus group participants. Specif‌ically, Dr. Boyles

talked to 75 protestors, conducted 41 in-depth interviews, and oversaw two focus groups with four

and f‌ive participants, respectively.

536 Criminal Justice Review 48(4)