How Police Brutality Harms Mothers: Linking Police Violence to the Reproductive Justice Movement

Authors

Arneta Rogers

Abstract

The recent and highly publicized killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old African American and the subsequent grand jury decision not to indict Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, Missouri police officer who killed him, evoked mass social protest, and highly emotional and politically charged social commentary on the racialized effects of police brutality. While the crisis of systemic police violence has historically centered on the harm inflicted on victims of police brutality and, more generally, on the communities where they are from, an agitated group of feminist scholars and reproductive justice advocates have offered a more nuanced appraisal of the harm of police brutality, and have called for a reframing of the issue to one of reproductive justice in light of its impact on the choices of mothers and families. This Note will examine the social, historical, sociological, and criminal justice implications of police brutality, and further analyze the efficacy of framing the problem as a Reproductive Justice concern.

Recommended Citation

Arneta Rogers, How Police Brutality Harms Mothers: Linking Police Violence to the Reproductive Justice Movement, 12 Hastings Race & Poverty L.J. 205 (2015).
Available at: https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_race_poverty_law_journal/vol12/iss2/4