Suchergebnisse

The abysmal state of the American criminal justice system and its pernicious features has been well documented in much of the relevant literature. Feeley and Simon (1992) propose the notion of a "new penology" that prioritizes efficient, cost-effective (and often actuarial) techniques to manage criminal populations, while Katherine Beckett (1997) argues that the punitive shift in crime control policy was an ideologically motivated response to the Civil Rights Movement, with political rhetoric fomenting fears of crime and public policy reflecting the vogue of law-and-order punishment. David Garland's (2001) comparative study of the United States and Britain suggests that "late modernity," which encompasses much of the social, economic, cultural, and technological advancements and changes of the second half of the twentieth century (e.g. wage stagnation, regressive tax policies, suburbanization, the rise in the service economy, new penal technologies), along with neoconservative politics in the 1980s played key roles in the reconfiguration of the criminal justice system.

This article examines the lack of racial diversity among the National Football League's (NFL) head coaches. Focusing on each new coaching cohort since 2013, when all eight of the newly hired head coaches were white, we contest common explanations offered by the League and many sports journalists. Specifically, we challenge the assumption that the racial homogeneity of the coaching population stems from the league's current premium on offensive-oriented coaches, who are overwhelmingly white. Through a careful examination of the experiences of every NFL head coach hired in the last nine years—prior credentials, win-loss records, job prospects if they are fired, among others—we argue that race remains a fundamental determinant in the opportunities of prospective head coaches. We therefore contend that commonly proposed solutions like expanding the Rooney Rule—a league rule established in 2003 that requires all teams to interview at least one person of color when filling a head coaching vacancy—fail to adequately account for the multitude of ways race still operates in hiring and promoting NFL coaches.