Wendy Chan – författare

This book explores, for the first time in an edited collection, the intersection of three key research areas - women, madness and the law - and advances the debates on how law and the 'psy' sciences play a critical role in regulating and controlling women's lives.

The original essays in Crimes of Colour explore the link between “race” and “crime” in the Canadian context. Much of the literature on race and crime to date has treated the category of “race” unproblematically; debate on this topic has focused primarily on the assumption that members of certain racial groups are most likely to commit crimes.In charting a different path, the authors in this collection provide critical and historical analyses of the connections between processes of “racialization” and “criminalization” in Canada.  The book seeks to engage the reader in thinking critically about how conceptualizations of racial identity and crime are interwoven. The editors begin by arguing for a need to shift from an analysis of “race” to an analysis of “racialization” in order to create the space for new ways of looking at the connections between race and crime. They investigate the history of the treatment of racialized people in Canada, looking at the processes through which First Nations people, immigrants, and people of colour have been defined in racialized terms and the way in which state policy has racialized individuals and groups. The insights provided by the historical backdrop situates the problematic legal positions First Nations people and people of colour occupied vis-a-vis the criminal justice system.Contemporary analyses of “race” and crime continue to highlight the on-going, complex, and subtle nature of the issues. Understanding how individuals are racialized in the legal system forms one of the main themes in this collection. Specifically, these discussions involve identifying the processes through which racialized groups and individuals are criminalized. The processes of racialization and criminalization come together in many contexts including various criminal justice institutions like the police and social institutions like the media.

Race still matters in Canada, and in the context of crime and criminal justice, it matters a lot. In this book, the authors focus on the ways in which racial minority groups are criminalized,as well as the ways in which the Canadian criminal justice system is racialized. Employing an intersectional analysis, Chan and Chunn explore how the connection between race and crime is further affected by class, gender, and other social relations.The text covers not only conventional topics such as policing, sentencing, and the media, but also neglected areas such as the criminalization of immigration, poverty, and mental illness.

Race still matters in Canada, and in the context of crime and criminal justice, it matters a lot. In this book, the authors focus on the ways in which racial minority groups are criminalized,as well as the ways in which the Canadian criminal justice system is racialized. Employing an intersectional analysis, Chan and Chunn explore how the connection between race and crime is further affected by class, gender, and other social relations.The text covers not only conventional topics such as policing, sentencing, and the media, but also neglected areas such as the criminalization of immigration, poverty, and mental illness.

This book explores, for the first time in an edited collection, the intersection of three key research areas - women, madness and the law - and advances the debates on how law and the 'psy' sciences play a critical role in regulating and controlling women's lives.

The criminalization and penalization of poverty through increased surveillance and control of welfare recipients in recent years has led many poverty advocates to claim that “a war against the poor” is currently in progress. The authors argue that people of colour are most often the casualties in the governments’ desire to roll back the welfare state. Relying on myths and stereotypes about racial difference, the enforcement and policing of welfare fraud policies constructs people of colour as potential “cheaters” and “abusers” of the system. This has allowed for the stigmatizing and discriminatory treatment of people of colour to persist unchallenged within the welfare system.