Synopses & Reviews
The “school-to-prison pipeline” is an emerging trend that pushes large numbers of at-risk youth—particularly children of color—out of classrooms and into the juvenile justice system. The policies and practices that contribute to this trend can be seen as a pipeline with many entry points, from under-resourced K-12 public schools, to the over-use of zero-tolerance suspensions and expulsions and to the explosion of policing and arrests in public schools. The confluence of these practices threatens to prepare an entire generation of children for a future of incarceration.
In this comprehensive study of the relationship between American law and the school-to-prison pipeline, co-authors Catherine Y. Kim, Daniel J. Losen, and Damon T. Hewitt analyze the current state of the law for each entry point on the pipeline and propose legal theories and remedies to challenge them. Using specific state-based examples and case studies, the authors assert that law can be an effective weapon in the struggle to reduce the number of children caught in the pipeline, address the devastating consequences of the pipeline on families and communities, and ensure that our public schools and juvenile justice system further the goals for which they were created: to provide meaningful, safe opportunities for all the nation's children.
Review
“Wiggins captures voices normally taken for granted: the voices of African American female laity. Based on fieldwork, surveys, and semistructured interviews, the book reveals a complex representation of thirty-eight African American churchwomen from two congregations (one Baptist and one Church of God in Christ.)”
“Daphne Wiggins has made a major contribution to our understanding of the religion, wisdom, and social power of African American women. This book should be required reading for church leaders, seminary professors, and sociologists of American religion who often take Black women's religiosity for granted. Wiggins offers us that rare gift found in the finest ethnographic studies, a vivid sense of the inner world of the people in their own voices. I learned something new on every page. A tour de force of insight and lively writing chock full of practical suggestions for improving church life.”
“Offers laity, clergy and scholars a fresh angle of vision on the black church. Wiggins interviews contemporary black lay women and provides an empathetic description and incisive analysis of why black women are loyal to the black church. Taking seriously the women's theological reasons as well as sociological factors, her analysis is evenhanded yet provocative. Daphne Wiggins challenges scholars and members of the black church to move in new directions in this new millennium. The book has value for both the classroom and the pew.”
“Wiggins is offering us a legacy, something to help us understand in historical reflection why women are where they are, despite and because of the internal workings of black churches. . . . I am grateful for this important intervention into the study of black women’s religious experiences. It offers us yet another opportunity to interpret the religious worlds of women whose lives are often unexamined.”
“This highly-readable book will be a valuable addition to library collections.”
Review
"Offers laity, clergy and scholars a fresh angle of vision on the black church. Wiggins interviews contemporary black lay women and provides an empathetic description and incisive analysis of why black women are loyal to the black church. Taking seriously the women's theological reasons as well as sociological factors, her analysis is evenhanded yet provocative. Daphne Wiggins challenges scholars and members of the black church to move in new directions in this new millennium. The book has value for both the classroom and the pew." - Marcia Y. Riggs, J. Erskine Love Professor of Christian Ethics, Columbia Theological Seminary
Review
"Daphne Wiggins has made a major contribution to our understanding of the religion, wisdom, and social power of African American women. This book should be required reading for church leaders, seminary professors, and sociologists of American religion who often take Black women's religiosity for granted. Wiggins offers us that rare gift found in the finest ethnographic studies, a vivid sense of the inner world of the people in their own voices. I learned something new on every page. A tour de force of insight and lively writing chock full of practical suggestions for improving church life." - Robert M. Franklin, author of Another Day's Journey: Black Churches Confronting the American Crisis
Review
“This highly-readable book will be a valuable addition to library collections.”
-Choice,/p>,
Review
"This startling book begins with the insight that criminal justice processes have come to dominate US social institutions...this useful, in-depth guide to education and juvenile justice reform would complement more sociological texts that explore cultural or societal aspects of the pipeline" -J.S. Montgomery,Choice
Review
“Increasingly, we must understand the production of structural disadvantage through a systems lens that focuses on the relationships between critical institutions rather than viewing them as distinct concerns. This incisive new work targets the interface between our K‒12 educational system and our juvenile and criminal justice systems with a fresh, unflinching account that is invaluable to lawyers, organizers and researchers alike.”
-John A. Powell,Executive Director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and the Williams Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University
Review
“Fills a much‒needed gap in the school‒to‒prison pipeline literature. There is very little information about legal strategies to interrupt the pipeline when you encounter reticent policy‒makers. This book provides just that, and covers all of the bases for doing so. As such, it is an invaluable resource for legal advocates working in the education and juvenile justice fields.”
-Randee J. Waldman,Barton Juvenile Defender Clinic, Emory Law
Review
“Wiggins is offering us a legacy, something to help us understand in historical reflection why women are where they are, despite and because of the internal workings of black churches. . . . I am grateful for this important intervention into the study of black womens religious experiences. It offers us yet another opportunity to interpret the religious worlds of women whose lives are often unexamined.”
-The North Star,
Synopsis
Enter most African American congregations and you are likely to see the century-old pattern of a predominantly female audience led by a male pastor. How do we explain the dedication of African American women to the church, particularly when the church's regard for women has been questioned?
Following in the footsteps of Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham's pathbreaking work, Righteous Discontent, Daphne Wiggins takes a contemporary look at the religiosity of black women. Her ethnographic work explores what is behind black women's intense loyalty to the church, bringing to the fore the voices of the female membership of black churches as few have done. Wiggins illuminates the spiritual sustenance the church provides black women, uncovers their critical assessment of the church's ministry, and interprets the consequences of their limited collective activism.
Wiggins paints a vivid portrait of what lived religion is like in black women's lives today.
About the Author
Catherine Y. Kim is a former attorney for the Racial Justice Program of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, National Legal Department. She currently teaches at the University of North Carolina School of Law at Chapel Hill.
Daniel J. Losenis a former lecturer at Harvard Law School and a senior education law and policy associate at The Civil Rights Project/Projecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA.
Damon T. Hewitt