(Im)Balancing Acts: Criminalization and De-Criminalization of Social and Public Health Problems

• Published in: The Journal of law, medicine & ethics Vol. 50; no. 4; pp. 703 - 710
• Main Authors: Gilbert, Keon L., Chang, Robert S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Cambridge University Press 01.01.2022
• Subjects: African Americans; Black people; Cocaine; Community; Criminal justice; Criminal sentences; Criminalization; Decriminalization; Disorderly conduct; Drug trafficking; Drug use; Fairness; Families & family life; Health disparities; Health education; Health Equity; Humans; Imprisonment; Legislation; Marijuana; Minority & ethnic groups; Narcotics; Police; Press conferences; Prisons; Prosecutions; Public Health; Punishment; Race; Slavery; Social control; Social order; Well being; White people; United States > US; Criminal Legal Justice System Reform; Disproportionate Minority Contact; Health Equity and Policing; Racial Inequities in Policing; Social and Structural Determinants of Criminalization
• ISSN: 1073-1105; 1748-720X; 1748-720X
• DOI: 10.1017/jme.2023.11

Racially disparate policing, prosecution, and punishment harm individuals, families, and communities. These practices must be understood within the context of the development of the criminal legal system as a means of racialized social control. This context permits a critical examination of the way criminalization has been and is still deployed to subject poor and racialized communities to systemic injustices. This commentary frames a call for interventions to integrate a health justice approach to ensure that they advance racial and health equity to promote the well-being of individuals, families, and communities.