ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the increased rate of psychosis and its potential relationship with criminality among Caribbean migrants in former colonizing Western countries, such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. This increased rate of psychosis may be related to institutionalised racism of Caribbean migrants in the psychiatric and judicial institutions of the receiving countries. The racial stereotyping of Caribbean migrants as “big, black and dangerous” (Special Hospitals Service Authority [SHSA], 1993), combined with the adverse and threatening social circumstances marginalised Caribbean migrants are confronted with, may lead to a toxic interaction. Social defeat may be related to the development of psychosis as well as to pathways to offending, while all three could be reciprocating each other. Longitudinal studies among Caribbean migrants to former colonizing Western countries are urgently needed to understand this intricate process in more depth and, more importantly, to prevent it from occurring.
