Racism, Crime and Justice

Racism, Crime and Justice offers a broad overview of this challenging and underexplored field. The book synthesises a great deal of empirical research evidence, documentary accounts and illustrative examples in order to give a minority perspective on the race and crime debate. The book looks systematically at the influence of race in determining the prison population, in influencing decisions by the courts, in the function and behaviour of the police, in the extent and nature of crime committed (both by and against ethnic minorities). The book ends by discussing policy issues, and explores the options open in seeking to combat discrimination on racial grounds within the criminal justice system following the findings of the Lawrence Inquiry.Although specialist studies have appeared and there have been general texts containing chapter length summaries of the area, there is no up-to-date textbook on this important theme.