Petit Apartheid

Criminologist and social-political geographer Daniel E. Georges-Abeyie introduced the concept and theory of petit apartheid in criminal justice and juvenile justice in 1990 to describe discriminatory, discretionary acts by law enforcement, correctional officers, and jurists that advantage or disadvantage an individual, or individuals, on grounds of their identity characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, gender, sex, sexual orientation, age, religion, or nationality. The concept has since been discussed on university and college campuses and written about in scholarly publications. The most notable exploration of the concept is Dragan Milovanovic and Katheryn K. Russell's edited volume, Petit Apartheid in the U.S. Criminal Justice System: The Dark Figure of Racism (2001).

The theory of petit apartheid has been refined to note its applicability to the juvenile justice systems as well as to the adult criminal justice systems, operative wherever social distance has the opportunity to transmute discretion into positive or negative discriminatory actions. The theory of petit apartheid notes that petit apartheid continues to manifest in both subtle and overt ways, including but not limited to psychiatric remands by courts; job assignments and security and custody ratings in correctional, jail, and detention settings; and via traffic stops and the subsequent search of motor vehicles. The theory of petit apartheid posits that the key to understanding the transmutation of discretion into positive or negative discrimination in criminal justice systems or juvenile justice systems is to understand the reality of actual outcome, not fixate on alleged intent.

The theory of petit apartheid is indebted to the sociological theories and the social-psychological and psychoanalytic theories of structural-functionalism, cognitive dissonance, and Freudian and neo-Freudian theory, respectively. Structural-functionalism notes that manifestations (i.e., norms, behaviors) remain long after the original reason for their origin. Thus, should one desire to permanently change a belief, one needs to change one's behavior first. Structural-functionalism notes that one has to get persons to choose the desired behaviors because of perceived benefits, not because of coercion. Only then can the desired behaviors be rationalized and result in permanent cognitive change. Freudian theory and neo-Freudian theory acknowledge motivation on three levels of consciousness: the conscious, which is self-explanatory; the preconscious, which is readily brought to consciousness by psychoanalysis and therapeutic psychopharmacological intervention; and the unconscious, which stubbornly resists conscious comprehension even after protracted psychoanalysis and long-term comprehensive therapeutic psychopharmacological intervention. The theory of petit apartheid acknowledges that certain discretionary discriminatory acts may be conscious and overtly discriminatory by the actor while others are not. Nonetheless, petit apartheid focuses on outcome, not intent.

In brief, the theory of petit apartheid is the legacy of three realities:

• De jure racism, that is, grand apartheid or statutory racism, which is currently unconstitutional in the United States and other Western nation-states
• De facto racism, that is, customary racism based upon the acting out of mores via norms, roles, and so on
• Social distance, that is, the degree of closeness or remoteness one desires in interaction with members of a particular group, including one's own; also the type, duration, frequency, and level of desired or acceptable/tolerable intimacy

The theory of petit apartheid acknowledges that there are many opportunities within the criminal justice system or juvenile justice system for discretion to transmute into positive or negative discrimination, such as the

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