Synopses & Reviews
Winner of the 2010 American Bar Association Honorable Mention for BooksAlbert Burrell spent thirteen years on death row for a murder he did not commit. Atlanta police killed 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston during a misguided raid on her home. After being released by Chicago prosecutors, Darryl Moore—drug dealer, hit man, and rapist—returned home to rape an eleven-year-old girl.
Such tragedies are consequences of snitching—police and prosecutors offering deals to criminal offenders in exchange for information. Although it is nearly invisible to the public, criminal snitching has invaded the American legal system in risky and sometimes shocking ways. Snitching is the first comprehensive analysis of this powerful and problematic practice, in which informant deals generate unreliable evidence, allow criminals to escape punishment, endanger the innocent, compromise the integrity of police work, and exacerbate tension between police and poor urban residents. Driven by dozens of real-life stories and debacles, the book exposes the social destruction that snitching can cause in high-crime African American neighborhoods, and how using criminal informants renders our entire penal process more secretive and less fair. Natapoff also uncovers the farreaching legal, political, and cultural significance of snitching: from the war on drugs to hip hop music, from the FBIs mishandling of its murderous mafia informants to the new surge in white collar and terrorism informing. She explains how existing law functions and proposes new reforms. By delving into the secretive world of criminal informants, Snitching reveals deep and often disturbing truths about the way American justice really works.
Review
"This is a useful book that can be read with profit by practitioners, scholars, and the general public."-Choice,
Review
"[T]hought-provoking. Natapoff...offers the most up-to-date and trenchant analysis of 'snitching' in the criminal justice system [and]...insightful proposals for reform.... Th[is] impressive text make[s] important substantive and theoretical contributions to the scholarship on race, class, crime, and the legal system."-Du Bois Review,
Review
"Natapoff does a good job of explaining the law that governs the use of informants, and of describing how the all-too-rare regulatory schemes, such as FBI guidelines, work. One would expect this much from any law professor; Natapoff, however, goes much further. One of the truly impressive contributions of the book comes in her explanation of the effects of widespread use of informants for the criminal justice system, our social structures, and our democracy... If it simply described [the] dramatic downsides in order to properly tally both benefits and risks of informant use, Snitching would be a very successful book. But to her credit, Natapoff does more than just catalogue these problems. She gives us a comprehensive picture of what we must do to make the use of informants acceptable within our criminal justice system... Alexandra Natapoff had produced a useful, timely, and important book. Snitching should find a place in every law school course looking at legal issues in the criminal justice arena, and on the syllabi of every university course in criminal justice that aims to give students a realistic and nuanced view of how the system really works. Natapoff's observations, as fair as they are, may not sit well with those committed to getting the bad guys at any cost. But that is the book's real gift: showing us what that cost is, and suggesting ways of constructing a system of criminal justice that accurately mirrors the values to which we aspire."-Criminal Justice,
Review
“As [Natapoff] reveals in this scrupulously researched and forcefully argued new book, our system of rewarding criminal snitches for information is a ‘game without rules, played almost entirely in the shadows and off the books. . . . Snitching is a highly readable, provocative argument for reforming a system that allows our machines of criminal prosecution to commit near-criminal acts of compromise.”
-Dahlia Lithwick,senior editor, Slate
Review
“Vital for understanding the legal process and the moral standard of law enforcement. An excellent read and a harsh glimpse at what the future might hold for the fabric of our justice system. A must have for the urban reader.”
-Immortal Technique,hip hop artist and President of Viper Records
Synopsis
Christy Adair's study is valuable, first because it introduces non-dancers to a history of dance--a history from the point of view of gender. Conversely, it introduces students of dance to critical theory, and suggests ways in which dance studies can benefit from this work. Most importantly, and crucially, she brings dance into the center of the study of gender and culture. Feminism, cultural studies, and dance analysis will all benefit from this reorientation.
from the Foreword by Janet Wolff
Dance is a marginalized art form which has frequently been ignored in the various debates about cultural practices. This book redresses the balance and opens up some important areas for discussion. Christy Adair argues that dance is an arena for feminist practice particularly as feminism has recognized the centrality of the arts in shaping our ideas about ourselves and our society.
Women's high profile in dance leads to the popular opinion that it is a female art form. But women tend to interpret rather than to create dance images. This book highlights the consequences for female dancers of the development of western dance technique in a patriarchal society. The constraints placed upon them are revealed in the texture of the dances discussed. Christy Adair shows how challenging traditional images of women in dance offers us visions for the future. But, she argues, in order for women's perspectives to be clearly established and influential, women must also have access to positions of power, such as directors and choreographers.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-270) and index.
About the Author
Christy Adair is a freelance writer, researcher, and lecturer in dance and women's studies. As a member of the New Dance Magazine Collective, she developed a voice for women's issues in dance and she contributed to the Arts Council discussion document of Women in the Arts. Currently, she writes for various dance journals, including Spare Rib, and Every Woman.