the Oregonian reports on important things

Long time no see, blog! To my fellow bloggers- if you’d like to add a description of yourself/your interests/ your work to the “contributors” page, feel free. If I know you well I might write about you myself… in that case, feel free to edit it/get mad at me.

I found a good thesis-fodder Oregonian article today… relevant for me and not you, but I’m sure you’ll find it interesting. My thesis (about prostitution, masculinity, governmentality…) in part deals with policing in Portland OR, ideas about criminality, and how “criminals” are defined and profiled. Apparently since 2003 the Portland police have had a secret “most arrested list” of the 35 people in the city most frequently arrested for petty/non-violent crimes. When the ACLU and a few attorneys declared the list unconstitutional, an investigation confirmed that it had grown from 35 to almost 400 people. I expect (though the article does not mention this) that many of those on the list are people who are “suspected or known prostitutes,” who are frequently arrested on property violation charges (loitering, etc), or drug-related charges if the “intent to solicit” charge is a stretch for a given situation.

Read the article here.