Book Review: Misdemeanorland: Criminal Courts and Social Control in an Age of Broken Windows Policing

Misdemeanorland: Criminal Courts and Social Control in an Age of Broken Windows Policing by Issa Kohler-Hausmann is a meticulous study of the lower courts in New York City during the early 2010s. Drawing on years of ethnographic fieldwork, interviews with court actors and defendants, and an array of quantitative data on police and court activities, Kohler-Hausmann wrenchingly depicts the agonies of misdemeanor processing. Rather than the standard fare of critiquing lower courts for failing to live up to the adjudicative ideal, Misdemeanorland instead considers the social control functions of lower courts. In lieu of determining factual innocence or guilt, actors in New York City’s misdemeanorland subjected defendants to ritualized hoops and hurdles designed to assess their character, manage risk, and provide some measure of control. Throughout the book, Kohler-Hausmann takes exceptional care to clarify her empirical and theoretical contributions, providing a picture of misdemeanorland that is sure to become a classic court study. In this review, I will briefly summarize each of the chapters and provide some synthetic comments on the book’s contributions and key questions for future research.