Dispossession by Accumulation: The Impacts of Discretionary Arrests in New York City

• Published date: 01 July 2020
• Date: 01 July 2020
• Author: Brett G. Stoudt,Gaurav Jashnani,Priscilla Bustamante
• DOI: 10.1177/2153368717742476
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Dispossession by Accumulation:

The Impacts of Discretionary

Arrests in New York City

Gaurav Jashnani

1

, Priscilla Bustamante

1

,

and Brett G. Stoudt

2

Abstract

Low-income people of color have been shown to experience disproportionate stops,

ticketing, and arrests within an order maintenance policing (OMP) approach to urban

law enforcement. A small but growing number of studies have begun to explore the

complex livedexperience of police encounters within this approach—animportant task

given the significantconsequences of such policing for individuals and communities.This

article examinesqualitative and quantitative data on incidents of discretionaryarrest for

low-level offenses, with a focus on young people of color. In-depth, semistructured

interviews and focus groups, as well as structured interviews outside criminal courts

across New York City, were conducted, offering insight into the scope and depth of

impact that OMP has on communities of color. The authors’ analysis underscores how

OMP can shift relationships to publicspace in ways that foster fear and social isolation,

examines the varied responses of young people to an unwanted criminal identity, and

suggests the importance of recognizing the cumulative nature of OMP’s collateral

consequences.

Keywords

order maintenance policing, broken windows, police encounters, noncriminal

violations, low-level arrests, youth, human impact, mixed methods

Order maintenance policing (OMP; frequently associated with “zero tolerance”

or “broken windows” policing)—the idea that cracking down on small signs of

1

Department of Psychology, Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, NY, USA

2

John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, New York, NY, USA

Corresponding Author:

Gaurav Jashnani, Department of Psychology, Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 5th Avenue, New York,

NY 10016, USA.

Email: gaurav.jashnani@gmail.com

Race and Justice

2020, Vol. 10(3) 269-296

ªThe Author(s) 2017

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DOI: 10.1177/2153368717742476

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“disorder” will prevent more serious crimes—means that each day, hundreds of New

Yorkers are brought into the criminal justice system for activities like walking

between train cars on the subway, riding a bicycle on the sidewalk, or waiting for a

family member or friend in their building lobby. While such acts, known as non-

criminal violations, are not legally considered crimes, they can still constitute grounds

for arrest or issuing of a criminal court summons at the discretion of individual police

officers. Additionally, low-level offenses in city parks or on public transit are auto-

matically charged as misdemeanors, even though many of them (e.g., sitting on the

steps of a subway platform or being in a park after hours) would be considered vio-

lations in any other setting.

1

Since the 1990s, the aggressive enforcement of low-level

offenses has criminalized these noncriminal infractions and, in the process, con-

tributed to criminalizing whole communities.

2

In 2015, 27,357 people were arrested and arraigned in city criminal courts for vio-

lations or infractions, in addition to tens of thousands of misdemeanor arrests stemming

from Broken Windows policing tactics (Office of the Chief Clerk of New York City

Criminal Court, 2016). This number does not include additional individuals who are

arrested and then released from custody with a summons instead of being held to

arraignment. Arrests for some of these charges have increased substantially in recent

years, often involving young people. For example, theft of services (usually turnstile

jumping on the subway) alone accounted for nearly 30,000 arrests and arraignments in

2015—approximately double the number of people arrested for this misdemeanor

charge in 2008 (Office of the ChiefClerk of New York City Criminal Court, 2016). Of

roughly 120,000 subway arrests for theft of services from 2008 to 2014, more than

45,000 were of youth under the age of 21 years old (Paddock & Ryley, 2014).

Effectiveness and Racial Dynamics of OMP

Justified intellectually by “broken windows” theory (Wilson & Kelling, 1982), OMP

seeks to establish and uphold public order through surveillance and aggressive

enforcement of minor offenses in urban areas perceived as disorderly and prone to

criminality (Fabricant, 2010; Geller & Fagan, 2010; Harcourt, 1998). While some

have argued that it produced a small but significant decline in crime (Meares &

Kahan, 1998; Skogan, 1990, 1999), Harcourt and Ludwig (2006) found in multicity

research that an aggressive focus on low-level offenses neither reduces crimes seen as

more serious nor uses resources effectively. A recent analysis of NYPD data by

Sullivan and O’Keeffe (2017) found that a temporary shift away from OMP tactics in

fact led to a decrease in serious crimes. However, evidence of the costliness and

ineffectiveness of OMP (Harcourt, 1998; New York Civil Liberties Union, 2012) has

not prevented this approach from being disseminated across the United States and

around the world (Herzing, 2011; Smith, 2001).

OMP has beenwidely criticized as raciallybiased, inflicting harassmentand violence

upon low-income communities of color (Bass, 2001; Brunson & Miller, 2006a;

Fabricant, 2010;Fagan & Davies, 2000; Greene, 1999;Levine & Small, 2008; Roberts,

1999; Stoudt, Fine, & Fox, 2011). This has been especially the case for urban young

270 Race and Justice 10(3)