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Threats of Danger: How Far Does the Culture of Control Extend

By Jonathan Simor

Today's Supreme Court arguments on whether strip searching a 13 year old girl on suspicion that she was carrying prescription strength ibuprofen on her person violated the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution provides another window into how deeply fear of violent crime reaches into the institutional structures of American government.School district lawyer Matthew Wright told NPR's Nina Totenberg (read her report):"With hindsight and with calm reflection, we can look back and say, 'OK, what kind of danger really was there on campus?' " Wright says. "But when you're on the ground making on-the-spot decisions, you don't have that luxury. School administrators are not pharmacologically trained in being able to assess the relative dangers any one drug might present, but what they are charged with is to make sure that students are kept safe from such threats of danger...continue to full post

Full post as published by Governing Through Crime on April 21, 2009 (boomark / email).