Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Tennessee
About
Kasey Henricks studies how racial inequalities are reproduced over time through institutional arrangements sponsored by public finance. Henricks is lead author of "State Looteries: Historical Continuities, Rearticulations of Racism, and American Taxation" (Routledge, 2017), and he has written twelve articles that have appeared in journals such as Social Problems, Sociological Forum, and Symbolic Interaction. Several of these contributions have been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Forbes. Aside from these features, Henricks' work has been recognized for excellence by the Ford Foundation, American Sociological Association, and Society for the Study of Social Problems. It has also been funded by the National Science Foundation, Law and Society Association, and Chicago Community Trust. Prior to becoming an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Tennessee, Henricks was a postdoctoral associate at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy, and a law and social science fellow at the American Bar Foundation.
Current Work:
Henricks is currently working on a project tentatively titled "The United States of Ferguson: Monetary Punishment and Its Bureaucratic Violence." The project uncovers how racial conflict has shaped, and been shaped by, the rise of punishment finance in modern America. The inquiry begins with the unrest that followed the tragic death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Asking why the police were at odds with a black population they had sworn to protect, the US Department of Justice investigated to learn the locals had been reduced, more or less, to a slush fund. That is, Ferguson represented a resource-strapped, black-majority city in which a white-led city government, municipal court system, and police force colluded to prioritize revenue generation above all else. Fiscal solvency depended on discretionary fines and fees, which constituted the second-largest source of local revenue, that were sanctioned for "deviant" activities like jaywalking, not upkeeping property, wrongfully removing trash, wearing "saggy" pants, and disturbing the peace. What remains unknown is the extent Ferguson was typical of other municipalities?
Research Area Keyword(s):
Race and ethnicity, public finance
