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Cited by 193Criminal Justice and Corrections AnalysisRace, Genetics, and SocietyEthics and Social Impacts of AI

Catching Our Breath: Critical Race STS and the Carceral Imagination

Open access
Benjamin, Ruha·2016·Engaging Science, Technology, and Society
DOI 10.17351/ests2016.70
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Abstract

This article draws together science and technology studies and critical race theory to examine the proliferation and intensification of carceral approaches to governing human life. It argues for an expansive understanding of “the carceral” that extends well beyond the domain of policing, to include forms of containment that make innovation possible in the contexts of health and medicine, education and employment, border policies and virtual realities. In interrogating the relationship between innovation and containment, it urges scholars to consider, who and what are fixed in place––classified, corralled, and/or coerced—to enable technoscientific development? Finally, it proposes the cultivation of an abolitionist consciousness that fosters human agency and freedom with and against sciences and technologies.

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This conceptual essay argues that science and technology studies (STS) must adopt a critical race lens to interrogate what Ruha Benjamin calls "the carceral imagination"—the routine, reasonable-seeming logics of classification and containment embedded in technoscience. It contends that racism operates not as ignorance but as a codified logic built into instruments, algorithms, and legal technologies, and that STS is uniquely positioned to expose it.

Key findings

  • Discriminatory design is normalized in ordinary instruments: Lundy Braun's work on the spirometer shows that "race correction" was so routine it had its own button, and in a 1999 class-action suit by 15,000 asbestos workers, the world's largest insulation manufacturer used it to make it harder for black workers to qualify for workers' compensation.
  • Algorithmic discrimination is measurable: citing Angwin et al. (2016), computer-generated risk assessment tools "falsely flag black defendants as future criminals, wrongly labeling them this way at almost twice the rate as white defendants."
  • Benevolent technoscience can reproduce stigma: medical hot spotting (Camden, NJ, 2007) uses GIS and spatial profiling to target "health care's costliest 1%," classifying people as "socially disintegrated," dependent, and unable to self-care.
  • Racism as reason, not ignorance: a Ferguson judge dismissed Henry Davis's suit after officers beat him, finding "a reasonable officer could have believed that beating a subdued and compliant Mr. Davis... did not violate the Constitution"—an example of "race correcting" constitutional reading.
  • Health inequality framing: citing Satcher et al. (2005), an estimated 83,570 excess deaths each year could be prevented in the US if the black-white mortality gap were eliminated.

Methods

  • Design: a theoretical/conceptual essay (presidential-address-style reflection for the Science, Knowledge, and Technology section of the ASA), not an empirical study.
  • Evidence base: synthesis of secondary scholarship and documented cases—Braun on the spirometer, Browne's *Dark Matters*, Pollock on the Scott sisters (16 years served, released 2011 on condition of kidney donation), Murakawa on punitive crime policy, Tutton et al. on the UK Human Provenance Pilot Project, and Rollins on bio-criminology.
  • Analytic move: extends Jasanoff and Kim's "sociotechnical imaginaries" to propose "carceral imaginaries," and treats race itself as a technology requiring "routine maintenance and upgrade."

Limitations

  • The paper states no formal limitations; it is explicitly a programmatic essay urging a field-wide agenda rather than a study with bounded data or methods.
  • Evident from the text: the argument is largely US-focused (with brief UK and indigenous-DNA examples), and its claims rest on illustrative cases and secondary literature rather than systematic or original empirical evidence.
  • Evident from the text: key concepts ("carceral imagination," "abolitionist consciousness") are proposed as bases for ongoing research rather than operationalized or tested.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.17351/ests2016.70

Cites

53 of 53 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Claims the paper makes

2 of 23 cited sources checked · 1 supported · 0 flagged · accuracy not yet measured

  • Premisecitation
    § !

    If a border agency official grows suspicious of an applicant's story, s/he can request samples of saliva, nails, and hair to test for 'nationality swapping,' using isotope analyses and genetic ancestry tests.

    “If, over the course of a standard interview, a border agency official grows suspicious of an applicant's story, s/he can request samples of saliva, nails, and hair to test for”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim1 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Tutton et al. 2014 source

      The Seeking Asylum section says UKBA officers proposed genetic ancestry and isotope tests when testimony and language analysis raised doubts about a Somali applicant’s claimed origin. The development of border control in the UK section calls the concern “nationality-swapping,” and Substituting Biology for Nationality identifies hair and fingernails for isotope testing. Our copy does not mention saliva samples, and the Introduction says this was a 2009–10 pilot that was not taken forward, rather than an ongoing option for officials. (LLM, conf=0.88)

      Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Premisecitation
    § Introduction!

    The spirometer's developer, Dr. John Hutchinson, was employed by insurance companies in the mid-1800s to minimize payouts.

    “whose developer, Dr. John Hutchinson, was employed by insurance companies in the mid-1800s to minimize payouts.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Braun 2014
  • Premisecitation
    § !

    Individuals who have had any type of contact with the carceral system, even those who have only been stopped but not charged for a crime, avoid surveilling institutions such as schools, banks, places of employment, and hospitals, even in cases where they require medical attention.

    “For example, individuals who have had any type of contact with the carceral system, even those who have only been stopped but not charged for a crime, avoid surveilling institutions such as schools, banks, places of employment, and hospitals, even in cases where they require medical attention (Brayne 2014).”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Brayne 2014 source
  • Premisecitation
    § !

    Algorithmic discrimination is not limited to police work; the carceral state embraces schools, hospitals, and other institutions that seek to control poor and racialized people.

    “schools, hospitals, and other institutions that seek to control poor and racialized people (Perry 2011, Taylor 2016).”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 2 sources checked
    • cites Perry 2011 source
    • cites Taylor 2016

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Interpretationreasoning
    § !

    Racialized populations are not the only ones who are routinely 'fixed' (purportedly helped and held in place) by the benevolent aims of technoscience.

    “And racialized populations are not the only ones 8 who are routinely”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim
  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim. 17
  • May combine two claims. 12

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Premisecitation
    § !

    Richard Tutton and colleagues examine how biotechnologies are put to use in UK border surveillance, specifically aimed at African asylum seekers.

    “Finally, moving beyond the US context, Richard Tutton and colleagues examine how biotechnologies are put to use in UK border surveillance, specifically aimed at African asylum seekers (Tutton et al. 2014).”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim1 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Tutton et al. 2014 source

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing), S4 (based). May combine two claims.

    Interpretationnone given
    § !

    The pre-emptive carceral imagination is popularized in films like 'Minority Report' and is slowly being rolled out under the cover of mitigating risk.

    “This is the pre-emptive carceral imagination popularized in films like”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S2 (checkable), S4 (based).

    Interpretationnone given
    § !

    Subjugation necessarily produces a range of responses.

    “despite the overwhelming diffusion of ideas and institutional practices that seek to limit the freedoms of dispossessed groups well beyond the prison walls, subjugation necessarily produces a range of responses.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Premisecitation
    § !

    Medical hot spotting uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies and spatial profiling to identify populations that are medically vulnerable ('health care's costliest 1%') in order to provide preemptive care at home and lower hospital admissions and health care costs.

    “medical hot spotting is a practice that started in Camden, New Jersey, in 2007, which”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Krupar and Ehlers 2015

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S2 (checkable). May combine two claims.

    Interpretationcitation
    § ! !

    Race itself can be conceptualized as a kind of technology, one that creates parallel social universes and premature death, and which requires routine maintenance and upgrade.

    “As I have argued elsewhere, we can conceptualize race itself as a kind of technology, one 6 that creates parallel social universes and premature death, and which requires routine maintenance and upgrade:”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Benjamin 2016a

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing).

    Premisecitation
    § ! !

    Statisticians like Richard Berk have designed crime prediction software to help anticipate when people on probation or parole are most likely to commit murder or be murdered.

    “This is a world in which statisticians like Richard Berk (University of Pennsylvania) have designed”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Johnson 2011

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • May combine two claims.

    Interpretationreasoning
    § Introduction!

    One need not harbor any racial animus to exercise racism; when the default settings have been stipulated, simply doing one's job-clocking in, punching out, turning the machine on and off-is enough to ensure the consistency of white domination over time.

    “One need not harbor any racial animus to exercise 5 racism in this and so many other contexts; rather, when the default settings have been stipulated, simply doing ones job-clocking in, punching out, turning the machine on and off-is enough to ensure the consistency of white domination over time.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S3 (load-bearing). May combine two claims.

    Premisecitation
    § Introduction!

    Racism and capitalism burrowing under the skin-whether by bullets or environmental toxins-cause premature death: an estimated 83,570 excess deaths each year could be prevented in the United States if this black-white mortality gap could be eliminated.

    “Racism and capitalism burrowing under the skin-whether by bullets or environmental toxins-cause premature death:”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Satcher et al 2005 source

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Premisecitation
    § !

    Critical biometric consciousness is an understanding of biometric technology as, first and foremost, a human technology 'where the ownership and access to one's own body data and other intellectual property must be understood as a right'.

    “In her book Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness, sociologist Simone Browne elucidates the idea of a critical biometric consciousness, which is an understanding of biometric technology as, first and foremost, a human technology”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Browne 2015

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S4 (based).

    Interpretationnone given
    § !

    Sociopolitical categories are reproduced and reconstituted through techno-scientific practices that act on, with, and against human bodies.

    “Whether in the context of race-based pharmaceuticals, genetic ancestry tests, designer babies, or police databases, sociopolitical categories are reproduced and reconstituted through techno-scientific practices that act on, with, and against human bodies.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • May combine two claims.

    Premisecitation
    § !

    Black people routinely are either degraded in popular representations of progress or completely written out of futuristic visions, a kind of temporal penitentiary in which oppressed people are locked in to a dystopic present.

    “Rather, black people routinely are either degraded in popular representations of progress or completely written out of futuristic visions (Nelson 2002), a kind of temporal penitentiary in which oppressed people are locked in to a dystopic present.”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Nelson 2002

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • May combine two claims.

    Premisecitation
    § ! !

    The use of DNA tests to vet tribal membership in the US has caused individuals to be dis-enrolled despite their longstanding association with the tribe, and so technoscience has the potential to displace the socio-cultural underpinnings of indigenous identity and also undermine political sovereignty.

    “The use of DNA tests to vet tribal membership in the US, for example, has caused individuals to be dis-enrolled despite their longstanding association with the tribe, and so technoscience has the potential to displace the socio-cultural underpinnings of indigenous identity and also undermine political sovereignty (TallBear 2013).”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites TallBear 2013

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S2 (checkable). May combine two claims.

    Interpretationreasoning
    § !

    Until we come to grips with the reasonableness of racism, we will continue to look for it on the bloody floors of Charleston churches and the dashboard cameras on Texas highways, and overlook it in the smart sounding logics of textbooks, policy statements, court rulings, science journals, and cutting edge technologies.

    “Until we come to grips with the reasonableness of racism, we will continue to look for it on the bloody floors of Charleston churches and the dashboard cameras on Texas highways, and overlook it in the smart sounding logics of textbooks, policy statements, court rulings, science journals, and cutting edge technologies”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S2 (checkable), S4 (based). May combine two claims.

    Interpretationnone given
    § !

    In the postracial era, subjugation is hardly ever the explicit objective of science and technology; instead, noble aims such as 'health' and 'safety' serve as a kind of moral prophylaxis for newfangled forms of classification and control.

    “In the postracial era, subjugation is hardly ever the explicit objective of science and technology; instead, noble aims such as”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim. May combine two claims.

    Premisecitation
    § ! !

    Browne's work builds upon the Fanonian notion of 'epidermilization,' or 'the imposition of race on the body,' by theorizing what Browne terms 'digital epidermilization,' which is what happens when certain bodies are rendered as digitized code through techniques such as facial recognition, iris and retinal scans, hand geometry, fingerprint templates, vascular patterns, gait and other kinesthetic, 3

    “Browne's work, in turn, builds upon the Fanonian notion of”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Browne 2015

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • May combine two claims.

    Premisecitation
    § !

    Computer-generated risk assessment tools are biased against black Americans: the formula was particularly likely to falsely flag black defendants as future criminals, wrongly labeling them this way at almost twice the rate as white defendants.

    “In a 7 recent report on”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Angwin et al. 2016

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S2 (checkable). May combine two claims.

    Interpretationreasoning
    § !

    Racism is not simply ignorance; it is also a logic, a reason, a justification, and a way of knowing the world and other human beings that is always violent, routinely deadly, and brilliantly codified in the very thing we would turn to for justice.

    “It is also (at the very least) a logic, a reason, a justification, and a way of knowing the world and other human beings that is always violent, routinely deadly, and brilliantly codified in the very thing we would turn to for justice.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S2 (checkable).

    Interpretationcitation
    § Introduction!

    In Garner's murder, in a police officer choking a person with asthma, we witness the convergence of direct and indirect forms of violence that are often already connected.

    “And in Garner's murder, in a police officer choking 4 a person with asthma, we witness the convergence of direct and indirect forms of violence that are often already connected.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S2 (checkable). May combine two claims.

    Interpretationreasoning
    § !

    Although the Human Provenance Pilot Program was eventually put on hold, the allure of objectivity that such tests offer in the face of popular xenophobia throughout the world suggests that many more such biotechnical fixes for social crises are in the pipeline.

    “And although the Human Provenance Pilot Program was eventually put on hold, the allure of objectivity that such tests offer in the face of popular xenophobia throughout the world suggests that many more such biotechnical fixes for social crises are in the pipeline.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim

  • Classified as probably not a substantial claim.

    Premisecitation
    § !

    Surveillance is nothing new to black folks.

    “Browne notes that”
    Quote in the paperSubstantial claim0 of 1 sources checked
    • cites Browne 2015

      Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  • Probably not a substantial claim: may not pass S2 (checkable).

    Interpretationreasoning
    § ! !

    Visions of development and progress are too often built upon forms of social and political subjugation that require upgrading in the form of novel techniques of classification and control.

    “Visions of development and progress are too often built upon forms of social and political subjugation that require upgrading in the form of novel techniques of classification and control.”
    Quote in the paperNot a substantial claim
21 of 21

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

  • Publication year for Murakawa's book differs between text and references

    Minor

    The text dates *The First Civil Right* to 2014, but the reference entry for the same book gives 2015.

1 of 1

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

3 of the 56 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. Benjamin, R. 2016b. "Interrogating Equity: A Disability Justice Approach to Human Gene Editing." Issues in Science and Technology 32 (3): 51-54.!
  2. boyd, d., K. Levy, and A. Marwick. 2014. "The Networked Nature of Algorithmic Discrimination." In Data & Discrimination: Collected Essays, edited by S. Peña Gangadharan and V. Eubanks, pp. 53-57. New America: Open Technology Institute. Accessed 18 June, 2016: http://www.danah.org/papers/2014/DataDiscrimination.pdf !
  3. Clarke, A., L. Mamo, J. R. Fosket, J. R. Fishman, and J. K. Shim. 2010. Biomedicalization: Technoscience, Health, and Illness in the U.S. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.!
  4. Morning, A. 2011. The Nature of Race: How Scientists Think and Teach and Human Difference. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.!

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Benjamin, R.
Affiliations
Princeton University (US)
Corresponding author
Benjamin, Ruha
ORCID
Benjamin, Ruha
Venue
Engaging Science, Technology, and Society
Publisher
Society for Social Studies of Science (4S)
Published
2016-07-01
Volume
2
Pages
145-156
ISSN
2413-8053 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.17351/ests2016.70
OpenAlex
W2470554584
Semantic Scholar
f08594a1e9d02b4b44546ba23e1872ce203d0a10
Cited by
193
References
56
Citations by year
2026: 19 · 2025: 40 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 2
FWCI
16.16
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Engaging Science Technology and Society (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • Princeton University
  • Department of African American Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Race, Genetics, and Society
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
Keywords
critical race theory, science and technology studies, containment, innovation, policing, border policy, virtual reality, health and medicine, education and employment, abolitionism, human agency, freedom, classification

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Classified by jev-1.13-20260917 (gold-guideline-v0.2) on 2026-11-04.

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