Violence Work

"An exceptionally sophisticated exploration of the nature of policing in relation to 'violence work.' . . . Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, and faculty." -- D. O. Friedrichs * Choice * "[Violence Work] reveals a great deal about what we do and do not know about state-sponsored violence as well as how best to get there. . . . Seigel portrays state repression in a relatively new light, leading to refreshing insights about theory, data sources, and unexamined hypotheses. The book kills fascists because if you follow the logic contained within it, you are led directly to perpetrators of violence, as well as the varying types of institutions in which they are found." -- Christian Davenport * Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics * Violence Work is an eye-opening, detailed and timely book that, for its historical approach, is an unusual appraisal of police legitimacy, which may not only to attract the attention of scholars and students of political science and criminal justice but also of policymakers, especially in this time of discussion of dismantling and defunding the police. -- Nusret M. Sahin * Ethnic and Racial Studies *

Micol Seigel is Professor of American Studies and History at Indiana University, Bloomington and the author of Uneven Encounters: Making Race and Nation in Brazil and the United States, also published by Duke University Press.

Acknowledgments vii Introduction. Policing and State Power 1 1. The Office of Public Safety, the LEAA, and US Police 25 2. Civilian or Military? Distinction by Design 52 3. "Industrial Security" in Alaska: The Great Public-Private Divide 73 4. Corporate States and Government Markets for Saudi Arabian Oil 99 5. Professors for Police: The Growth of Criminal Justice Education 121 6. Exiles at Home: A Refugee Structure of Feeling 146 Conclusion. Reckoning with Police Lethality 179 Appendix 189 Abbreviations 191 Notes 193 Bibliography 249 Index 293