ABSTRACT
There is undoubtedly an unhealthy dynamic that surrounds the issue of ‘race’. Incidents of racial hatred, the data on ‘race’ in the criminal justice system, the discourse of ‘race’ that surrounds us all are telling us clearly that there is a problem. This chapter argues that an understanding of the psychosocial dynamics that construct our understanding of ‘race’ needs to be historically situated.
To be young, male and black and growing up in London, Philadelphia or Paris can mean being subject to the anxieties and projections of the culture around you. You may also be living amidst some of the debris of the historical legacy of the impact of colonisation and slavery on family structures.
This chapter firstly discusses the degree of fear and anxiety which both energises and clouds debate about this topic. It then briefly considers traditional biological and sociological approaches to the study of ‘race’ and crime, before moving on to the significant work of W. E. B. Du Bois who raised remarkably prescient questions in his ground-breaking work on ‘race’ in Philadelphia at the end of the nineteenth century. The fourth section then examines contemporary data on the dynamics on ‘race’ and crime in the UK. The fifth section looks at what we can learn from studies of racial hatred and violence. The sixth section builds a psychosocial understanding of what we mean by ‘race’ and racism.
