Abstract
Public discourses on race, school discipline, and the criminal legal system have consistently prioritized the conditions of males--rendering females, particularly young Black women and girls, invisible in policy responses and practices aimed to reduce racial disparities and confinement. When women and girls are acknowledged, the focus is often exclusively on their sexuality and reproductive health. In this lecture, Dr. Morris will discuss why it is imperative that scholars, advocates, and other key stakeholders construct a more gender-inclusive and authentic justice reform agenda.
In recent years, the violent crime rate has dropped to near record lows. At the same time, there has been an explosion in the number of private citizens who obtain a license to carry a concealed firearm in public. There are now nearly eight million people with concealed carry permits nation-wide, and yet little is known about how they think about crime, threat, and self-defense. An analysis of in-depth interviews with 36 concealed handgun license holders in Texas suggests that while concealed-carry instructors explain threat in ostensibly race-neutral, colorblind language, license holders themselves utilize racialized and classed understandings of crime as they navigate public spaces. As this research makes clear, the way that license holders think about crime and victimization, including differences in how men and women explain threat, is a critical component in understanding the social implications of an armed citizenry.
Lecturer
Monique W. Morris, EdD is a 2012 Soros Justice Fellow and a lecturer for Saint Mary’s College of California in the Leadership Studies Graduate Program. Dr. Morris is also the CEO of MWM Consulting Group, LLC, a research and technical assistance firm that advances concepts of fairness, diversity and inclusion. She is the former Vice President for Economic Programs and Executive Director of the Financial Freedom Centers for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and has nearly 20 years of professional and volunteer experience as a scholar advocate in the areas of civil rights and social justice. Prior to joining the NAACP, Dr. Morris was the Director of Research and Senior Research Fellow at the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. She has also served as Director of the Discrimination Research Center, as senior research staff with the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, and as a consultant for the Corrections Standards Authority, the Contra Costa County Probation Department, and a number of nonprofit community based organizations. Dr. Morris is also a leader in facilitating community response strategies designed to reduce the disproportionate representation of youth of color in the juvenile justice system. For over 15 years, she led efforts to examine and respond to racial disparities in the justice system. She has worked in partnership with state and county agencies, academic institutions and communities throughout the nation to develop comprehensive approaches and training curricula to eliminate ethnic and gender disparities in the justice system. Her work has informed the design and development of improved culturally-competent and gender-responsive continua of services for youth. Dr. Morris is a member of the California State Subcommittee on Reducing Disproportionate Minority Contact; and an Advisory Board member for the Center for Young Women’s Development, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, CA, which provides intensive intervention and rehabilitative services for young women who have been involved in the justice system.
Dr. Morris is also a leader in facilitating community response strategies designed to reduce the disproportionate representation of youth of color in the juvenile justice system. For over 15 years, she led efforts to examine and respond to racial disparities in the justice system. She has worked in partnership with state and county agencies, academic institutions and communities throughout the nation to develop comprehensive approaches and training curricula to eliminate ethnic and gender disparities in the justice system. Her work has informed the design and development of improved culturally-competent and gender-responsive continua of services for youth.
Dr. Morris is a member of the California State Subcommittee on Reducing Disproportionate Minority Contact; and an Advisory Board member for the Center for Young Women’s Development, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, CA, which provides intensive intervention and rehabilitative services for young women who have been involved in the justice system.
