ABSTRACT
Criminology remains in a self-imposed scientific quarantine when it comes to understanding the possible connection between race and behavior. So too are other “social” sciences. The American Sociological Association (ASA), to which many criminologists belong, made its position on race clear when it issued its “official statement on race” (2003). In short, the ASA claims that “biological research now suggests that the substantial overlap among any and all biological categories of race undermines the utility of the concept for scientific work in this field”; that “it is important to recognize the danger of contributing to the popular conception of race as biological”; and that “race is a social construct (in other words, a social invention that changes as political, economic, and historical contexts change).”
