Ghettoside

In discussing the matter of black-on-black violence and the criminal justice system, the book continually returns to the concept of a state monopoly on violence—i.e., the fact that in modern society, the state has the sole authority to commit violent acts against people. This is presented as resolutely modern—Leovy even describes, for example, a case in the early 20th century in which two men tracked down and killed their mugger, an act for which the police turned a blind eye and the media lauded as simply taking the law into their own hands (a phrase that now typically carries a negative connotation). This concept is an important piece of Leovy’s thesis: the more optimistic view of this concept is that, assuming a benevolent state, a state monopoly on violence helps to provide for the safety and security of its populace because citizens, as a result, do not need to fear their peers. However, Leovy’s argument is that blacks in American society have not benefited from a state monopoly on violence; rather, the state has generally turned its back on black-on-black crime, which has in turn reinforced the need for communal justice, despite that the latter has been largely eradicated from modern society.