Available From UC Press

Gun Present takes us inside the everyday operations of the law at a courthouse in the Deep South. Illuminating the challenges accompanying the prosecution of criminal cases involving guns, the three coauthors—an anthropologist, a geographer, and a district attorney—present a deeply human portrait of prosecutors’ work. Built on an immersive, community-based participatory partnership between researchers and criminal justice professionals, Gun Present chronicles how a justice assemblage comprising institutional structures and practices, relationships and roles, and individual moral and emotional worlds informs the day-to-day administration of justice. Weaving together in-depth interviews, quantitative analysis of more than a thousand criminal cases, analysis of trial transcripts, and over a year of ethnographic observations, Gun Present provides a model for scholar-practitioner collaborations.

Susan Dewey is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Alabama. She is author or coauthor of thirteen books, including Outlaw Women: Prison, Rural Violence, and Poverty in the New American West and Women of the Street: How the Criminal Justice–Social Services Alliance Fails Women in Prostitution.

Brittany VandeBerg is Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Alabama. She is author of Women of Piracy and Political Geographies of Piracy: Constructing Threats and Containing Bodies in Somalia.
 
Hays Webb is District Attorney of the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Alabama.

“Gun Present is an innovative, vivid, and thought-provoking ethnography of a southern US District Attorney’s Office, illuminating their work in the disposition of criminal cases involving guns. Beautifully crafted, this text contributes to criminological theory while highlighting the value of community-engaged collaboration between criminologists and criminal justice practitioners. It ought to sit at the top of reading lists for scholars, students, and practitioners with an interest in qualitative research methods and criminal justice."—Fiona Brookman, Professor of Criminology, University of South Wales

"This is work to emulate—empirically rich and theoretically intricate yet clear and engrossing. Based on ethnographic participatory action methods, thriving on enviable team synergy, and seen through the lens of context-bound assemblages of justice, the daily practices of prosecutors in gun-involved criminal cases emerge in lush detail."—Lois Presser, author of Unsaid: Analyzing Harmful Silences

"This innovative ethnography highlights the value of community-engaged collaboration between criminologists and criminal justice practitioners."—Walter S. DeKeseredy, author of Contemporary Critical Criminology

“This exceptional collaboration between a district attorney, an anthropologist, and a geographer unveils the intricate web of justice, politics, and culture in the heart of the Deep South. With unparalleled access to the inner workings of a southern courthouse, this dynamic trio sheds light on the complex world of prosecution where power, discretion, and the Second Amendment converge. The result is a profound exploration that not only bridges academic discourse but also engages with pressing societal issues through meticulous research and an intimate understanding of the southern moral universe. Gun Present is a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper comprehension of the complex forces shaping criminal justice in the Deep South.”—Katarina Jacobsson, coauthor of Hidden Attractions of Administration: The Peculiar Appeal of Meetings and Documents

“Enabled by the probing, immersive lens of ethnography, this book reveals what it calls ‘the interior depths of the law in practice.’ Its unique collaborative, community-engaged approach uncovers the complex realities of prosecutors in action, providing a novel and much-needed perspective on the problem of gun violence in the US.”—Robin Conley Riner, author of Confronting the Death Penalty: How Language Influences Jurors in Capital Cases
 
“Gun Present provides a vital transdisciplinary critical analysis of the complexities of gun crime. The book amply demonstrates the importance of participatory research and eloquently advances and applies the notion of a justice assemblage.”—Anna Carline, coauthor of Rape and the Criminal Trial: Reconceptualising the Courtroom as an Affective Assemblage

“This compelling and innovative book combines the analytical perspective of a researcher with the lived experience of a district attorney to reveal the ways in which the criminal justice system serves and obscures the pursuit of justice. It is a manifesto against the problems of drive-by criminology, offering insight into the enduring and complex relationship between race and justice in the south.”—Christopher A. Cooper, coauthor of The Resilience of Southern Identity: Why the South Still Matters in the Minds of its People