Book Review: Presumed criminal: Black youth and the justice system in postwar New York

• Author: Jimmonique R. S. Rodgers
• Published date: 01 September 2022
• Date: 01 September 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734016820913082

Corbin concludes that there is a lack of due process in juvenile court due to problems surrounding

the role of the juvenile defender. This is possible, and perhaps likely, but it cannot be concluded from

a study in which this matter was neither explicitly addressed nor measured. Corbin’s study raises

concern about defense representation in juvenile court, but Corbin’s methodology makes it nearly

impossible to discern the precise dimensions of that concern. Nevertheless, this book would be

best suited for scholars in the field interested in continuing this work or graduate students looking

to learn more about the topic.

Suddler, Carl. (2019). Presumed criminal: Black youth and the justice system in postwar New York. New York

University Press. 223 pp. $45.00, ISBN: 9781479847624.

Reviewed by: Jimmonique R. S. Rodgers, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734016820913082

In Presumed Criminal, Carl Suddler, Emory University assistant professor of history, chronicles

the criminalization of Black youth in Harlem from the 1930s through the 1960s. Using contem-

poraneous media accounts, governmental records, and eyewitness reports, Suddler describes the

socioeconomic and legal factors supporting his theory that the New York City justice system

contributed to the racialized constructions of Black youth criminality. The author argues that

the justice system subjected Black youth to more punitive measures and categorically stigma-

tized them as criminals. Written in easy-to-read language, this discussion is presented over

five chapters, each focusing on the social and legal environment for Harlem’s Black youth

during the focus period.

Chapters 1 and 2 discuss the criminalization of Black youth before World War II. In Chapter 1,

Suddler examines the rise of youth crime in Harlem and official responses to address it. Black res-

idents, historically denied full access to employment, education, and social mobility, became

more frustrated with the decreased opportunities available in the wake of the Depression. The

author discusses how the confluence of social factors including the need for both parents to

work, the lack of recreational spaces for Black youth, and the disintegration of the nuclear

family all contributed to an increase in the prevalence of unsupervised children. Police amplified

their presence in Harlem to suppress what many considered a fabricated crime wave. As surveil-

lance increased, so did the involvement of Black youth in the justice system. At the same time,

New York City and the nation began to shift from progressive-era perspectives on rehabilitating

youth to punitive measures, further exacerbating the discriminatory treatment of Black youth. The

author notes that this continued despite the 1938 passage of the federal Juvenile Delinquency Act

and the efforts of the nation’sfirst Black judge who was appointed to the New York City Domestic

Relations Court in 1939.

With a discussion of the 1934 Harlem uprising, Chapter 2 shifts from the formal justice system to

the rising community frustration with racial discrimination. While domestic jobs increased during the

deployment of Americans for war efforts, many Blacks were excluded from these jobs due to dis-

crimination. Suddler observes that increased police surveillance in Harlem only heightened racial

tensions, which ignited when a police officer shot a Black soldier who had intervened to stop the

arrest of a local Black woman. The riots tore through Harlem only ending after Mayor LaGuardia

imposed a curfew and sent in law enforcement. While the mayor publicly refuted the characterization

of the event as a race riot, Suddler notes that racial tensions in Harlem festered.

404 Criminal Justice Review 47(3)