With
urban poverty rising and affordable housing disappearing, the homeless
and other "disorderly" people continue to occupy public space in many
American cities. Concerned about the alleged ill effects their presence
inflicts on property values and public safety, many cities have
wholeheartedly embraced "zero-tolerance" or "broken window" policing
efforts to clear the streets of unwanted people. Through an almost
completely unnoticed set of practices, these people are banned from
occupying certain spaces. Once zoned out, they are subject to arrest if
they return-effectively banished from public places. Banished is the
first exploration of these new tactics that dramatically enhance the
power of the police to monitor and arrest thousands of city dwellers.
Drawing upon an extensive body of data, the authors chart the rise of
banishment in Seattle, a city on the leading edge of this emerging
trend, to establish how it works and explore its ramifications. They
demonstrate that, although the practice allows police and public
officials to appear responsive to concerns about urban disorder, it is a
highly questionable policy: it is expensive, does not reduce crime, and
does not address the underlying conditions that generate urban poverty.
Moreover, interviews with the banished themselves reveal that exclusion
makes their lives and their path to self-sufficiency immeasurably more
difficult. At a time when more and more cities and governments in the
U.S. and Europe resort to the criminal justice system to solve complex
social problems, Banished provides a vital and timely challenge to
exclusionary strategies that diminish the life circumstances and rights
of those it targets.
