Race & Crime + Critical Criminology

race

a social construct (historical product of colonization)

racism

an act produced in a systematic manner, manifestic in the unequal treatment of people by social-legal and historical structures, as well as institutions

three categories of racism

overt, institutional, and systemic racism

colonialism

• the practice of domination involving the subjugation of one people to another

• process of European expansionism

doctrine of discovery

based on the concept of terra nullius

terra nullius

newly belonged territories belongs to nobody

role of rcmp in colonialism

• enforcing the indian act

• expansion of railways in Canada

• suppressing Indigenous culture

• advancing colonialism interest

  • helping with taking children to residential school

police racial profiling

• use of race as the basis for profiling, determing who they are searching, arresting, and detaining

  • activity of selecting or examining a specific race

intersectionality (Kimberle Crenshaw)

describes how race intersects with other institutional markers of identity such as race, economic, class, gender, sexuality, etc.

overt racism

• form of discriminatory racism expressed as clear, and ombigous type of racism

  • encounter between people where racial bias is experienced by one person directly as racial slurs

institutional racism

• a form of racism embedded in the policies and practices of institutions, which results in unequal treatment of individuals based on their race

• bias exists because of rules ir practices, not an identity

  • racism without a racist person

systemic racism

• bias or difference as an affect of social structures

• form of racial inequality as a form of education, incarceration, or health that is perpetuated through societal systems and institutions

• resulting in disparities based on race in areas such as education, employment, criminal justice, and healthcare.

abolitionist criminology

• theoretical framework in criminology that advocates for the abolition of prisons and punitive measures

• emphasizes social justice, the importance of community care, and addressing the root causes of crime

reform

making changes but keeping the overall purpose

abolition

focuses on the whole set of rules and thinks about how they can completely dismantle and approach things on a different way

prison abolitionists

focusing on eliminating prisons and replacing them with systems that prevent harm, support rehabilitation, and address root causes of crime

police abolitionists

focus on eliminating traditional policing and replacing it with community-based safety systems, conflict resolution services, and crisis-response models

convict criminology

• approach to criminology that provides a voice tho those that have been in the justice system

• focuses on the experiences of incarcerated individuals and emphasizes the need for reform within the justice system

blumebach

concluded that humankind was split into five categories (Caucasians, Mongolians, Ethiopian, American, Malays)

critical perspective

understands race as a social construct used to artifically sort and divide humans

nationhood

the idea that the world is divided into two distinct nations made up of people with inherent ethnic, cultural, and even biological characteristics

critical criminology

normalizes crime as a result of social inequalities and power dynamics, questioning traditional criminal justice approaches and emphasizing the role of systemic factors

marx

suggests that societies are full of conflict, which is often reflected in, and stems from the social relationships involved in producing the things we need such as food and water

bloody legislation

laws that enable the creation of private property and used against the working class to force them to work in the capitalist mode of production in factories

marxist perspective

criminal law, police, and prisons exist to control the population, force people to work, and to prevent people from equally sharing land, resources, and wealth

william chambliss

drew on marx ideas and concluded that these laws were created to force people to work in factories and other places, criminalizing those who did not

repressive state apparatuses

bodies granted the legal right to use physical force to control the masses (military, police, judiciary, and the prison system)

instrumental marxist

suggests that the state apparatus and criminal law exists as a direct result of capitalism to uphold capitalism and the capitalist mode of production

structural marxist

• argues that the government are somwhat autonomous and aren’t simply installed by the owning class

  • agrees that the law works to ensure capitalist accumulation and maintain conditions where the generation of wealth is possibleco

contemporary marxist

argue that idelogies are necessary to support legitamate actions of the state to enforce definitions of crime in law, policing, and other corrections

foucalr

• explored how power dynamics and social institutions shape definitions of crime and punishment, emphasizing their historical context

  • post-structuralist

phases of foucauldian thought

1. archaelogical phase

2. genealogical phase

3. phase of ethics

archaelogical phase

• understands law as a discourse or mechanism for categorizing and classifying people

• interested in the emergence of discourse and how they are translated into techniques or methods of power

genealogical phase

interested in not only the techniques of classification, but also how they turn into different mechanisms of discipline and normalization

phase of ethics

interested in how people governed themselves in a free society, how we make ourselves members of society, and how we control our own behaviour

david garland

linked foucalt’s idea to a history of crime control policies