What determines a criminal? The U.S. functions on an adversarial system of justice. Ideally, within this system cases are brought before a neutral party that is meant to determine innocence or guilt based on written and oral arguments, evidence, and testimony. However, our system is fraught with prejudice, racism, and oppression.
Theft, arson, assault, extortion, prostitution, fraud, battery, and murder; the taxonomy of crime reduces our understanding of wrongdoing to discrete actions. Some of which, depending on the perpetrator, result in fatal consequences. Whether a jury is evaluating a defendant’s guilt, a police officer judging the potentially violent intent of a citizen, or a social body determining the virtue of a person in power, identifying a criminal requires an array of problem solving tactics.
The law neglects those living on the margins of society, so how can we expect the current methodological pursuit of justice to uphold its manifest function, “...justice for all”? For our third issue, Contango presents contributions that explore where crime falls in and out of the law.
Dimensions: 6.75 x 4.5"
Materials: Full-color booklet
Contango Journal
(Humbolt Park)
Contango is a Chicago-based journal founded in 2016. We invite writers, artists, and activists to critically address current social issues. Rooted in economic discourse, Contango aims to rethink our relationship to systems of authority and explore potential futures in order to better understand the realities we inhabit today. In an economy where information is power, access and privilege must be questioned as a means for capital gain.
