Blackness, Race, and Criminology

Question 1

Race

Answer 1

Human differences historically recognized
→ physical traits, ethnicity, place of origin, national affiliation
→ associated with innate characteristics (intellect, habits, morality)

Question 2

Modern understanding of race

Answer 2

Racial discourse amplified differences and categorized human groups according to a social hierarchy (racism)
→ innate differences, biological, different “nature”
→ colonialism justified the dominance over groups considered “primitive”

Question 3

Mainstream criminology and racism

Answer 3

• Assumed biological behavioural differences between races
• justified the differential treatment of non-white groups
• treated non-white groups as an “object of study”
• rejected the knowledge and perspective of non-white groups
• viewed the western criminological knowledge as the scientific truth

Question 4

Critical race studies and critical criminology

Answer 4

• Challenged the racist assumptions of mainstream criminology
  → racial inequalities in the social construction of crime (labelling)
  → colonialism and white dominance in the political system (knowledge as power, construction of reality)

Question 5

Race and criminology in North America

Answer 5

• Slavery, segregation, modern “colour-blind” racism
  → slave regime: criminalization punished those who resisted, revolted, or escaped
  → segregation: criminalization upheld exclusion
  → “colour-blind” racism: criminalization allegedly equal but over-policing, surveillance, and punishment (restriction of civil rights and socioeconomic opportunities for convicts)

Question 6

Racialization of crime

Answer 6

• Criminal Justice system as the rearticulation of state-enforced control after slavery
  → discriminatory treatment: over-surveillance, higher chances of being stopped/charged/questioned, more severe sentences, disproportionately incarcerated
  → vulnerable to harm and death
  → demonization and association of blackness and criminality

Question 7

Historical association between blackness and criminality (social function)

Answer 7

• Slavery; the presence of black people in public raised suspicion of “runaway”
• maintenance of the “racial order” (subalternization of black communities)
• criminalization of migration from non-white nations

Question 8

Filtering of crime

Answer 8

• most people commit crime but few are caught, arrested, charged, convicted and imprisoned
  → labelling and race: blacks are disproportionately policed and more likely to be considered guilty
  → criminal behavior is distributed across race and class

Question 9

Racial profiling

Answer 9

• Police officers have a discretion to decide how and where to seek out crime based on ideas about who is suspicious
  → stereotypes and popular beliefs about race (perceived black youth as possible gang members)
  → self-fulfilling prophecy: the more a group is targeted, the higher chances that criminality will be discovered
  → over-policing as violence: constant fear, feeling unsafe to walk in public

Question 10

Surveillance versus privacy

Answer 10

Collection of personal information for a police database
→ carding: identity checks, searches, seizures, car stops

Question 11

The war on drugs

Answer 11

• Fear of racialized gangs and violence stemming from the drug business
  → violence out of control, gangs are stronger than police
• police control over racialized communities through the criminalization of drugs
  → war: police campaign to eradicate illegal substances that were believed to be ravaging communities
  → gave law enforcement officers more power to intervene over suspected individuals (associated blackness and drugs)
  → state invested in law enforcement (hostility, repression) instead of welfare/assistance programs
  → increased black incarceration

Question 12

Prime Minister Harper

Answer 12

• brought back the visibility on the war on drugs
  → invested in building and filling prisons
  → social investments were cut on almost every sector besides prison and the military
• National anti-drug strategy (NADS): more than 3/4 of federal funding went towards policing efforts rather than treatment and support programs

Question 13

Impacts of drug prohibition

Answer 13

• Public health problems: street violence, stronger criminal networks, spread of diseases, overdose deaths
• social factors: isolation childhood abuse, trauma, socioeconomic circumstances

Question 14

Moderate (non-abusive) use of illegal substances

Answer 14

• Cause little pharmacological harm
• advocation for harm-reduction approaches
  → apply the same policies to illegal substances as fast food
  → move towards decriminalization of non-violent drug crimes and regulation of illegal drugs