| 5 Grams: Crack Cocaine, Rap Music, and the War on Drugs Subjects: Drug control -- United States; Crack (Drug) -- United States; Sentences (Criminal procedure) -- United States; Narcotic laws -- United States; In 2010, President Barack Obama signed a law repealing one of the most controversial policies in American criminal justice history: the one hundred to one sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder whereby someone convicted of "simply" possessing five grams of crack--the equivalent of a few sugar packets--had been required by law to serve no less than five years in prison. In this highly original work, Dimitri A. Bogazianos draws on various sources to examine the profound symbolic consequences of America's reliance on this punishment structure, tracing the rich cultural linkages between America's War on Drugs, and the creative contributions of those directly affected by its destructive effects. Bogazianos Dimitri A. : Dimitri A. Bogazianos is Assistant Professor in the Division of Criminal Justice at California State University, Sacramento. |