Professor Jeff Yates of the Binghamton University Department of Political Science, and Professor Andrew B. Whitford of the University of Georgia Department of Public Administration and Policy, have published Race in the War on Drugs: The Social Consequences of Presidential Rhetoric, 6 Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 874 (2009). Here is the abstract:
“One of the president’s main leadership tools for influencing the direction of U.S. legal policy is public rhetoric. Numerous studies have examined the president’s use of the ‘bully pulpit’ to lead policy by influencing Congress or public opinion, or by changing the behavior of public agencies. We argue that the president can use rhetoric to change the behavior of public agencies and that this can have important social consequences. We focus on the disproportionate impact of presidential rhetoric on different ‘target populations’ in the context of the War on Drugs. Specifically, we observe that presidential rhetoric had a greater impact on state arrest rates for African Americans than for whites, even when controlling for alternative explanations. These findings suggest that presidential rhetoric is filtered through social constructions of public policy problems when public officials act on them.”
Tags: Andrew B. Whitford, Criminal justice communication systems, Criminal justice information systems, Drug enforcement, Drug law enforcement, Empirical methods in legal communication studies, Empirical methods in legal rhetorical studies, Influence of political rhetoric on drug law enforcement, Influence of political rhetoric on law enforcement, Jeff Yates, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Law enforcement, Legal communication, Legal rhetoric, Political rhetoric, Presidential rhetoric, Race and drug law enforcement
