“Language of the Gun shows why Bernard Harcourt has earned a reputation as one of our most provocative and informative analysts of the administration of criminal justice. Thoroughly interdisciplinary, he brings to bear on his subject a remarkably wide range of sources. Most striking are his probing interviews with at-risk youths which provide a fascinating and rare glimpse into how they think about guns and gun carrying. This book bristles with insight and information.”

Randall Kennedy | Randall Kennedy

“Bernard Harcourt is surely one of the most creative scholars working at the intersection of law, social science, and policy. In Language of the Gun, he presents a fresh and empirical look at the meaning of guns for youths that helps shed new light on broader theoretical and policy issues.”

Calvin Morrill | Calvin Morrill

"[Harcourt} embraces the metaphor of ’dirty hands’ in this erudite, fascinating, and boldly reasoned volume to understand how public policies can be informed by the symbolic meanings attributed to guns by incarcerated youths. . . . It is an important book, one that forces each of us to examine the assumptions that underlie our work. Harcourt’s work is a gift to the field, a work that stimulates, frustrates, inspires, and, most important, motivates us to think and read more."

Michael B. Greene | PsychCritiques (APA)

"A very important book in my view. Harcourt has given the opportunity for the voices of young people, both perpetrators and victims of gun violence, to be heard through his research. . . . He has conducted a methodologically unique study. The empirical findings are very much welcome."

Georgios A. Antonopolous | The Howard Journal