ABSTRACT
This chapter revisits and builds on the argument for developing a Black Criminology. Blackness matters in criminology, and a call for a Black Criminology is designed to expand the theoretical and methodological framework for understanding Black offending, victimization, and processing within the justice system. It is a historically rooted approach that encompasses a wide range of approaches to crime, including individual and structural. The chapter summarizes the argument for a Black Criminology, highlights the academic responses to the call for a Black Criminology, analyzes whether this paradigm fits within an existing subarea of criminology (e.g., critical criminology, critical race theory, or critical criminology) or should be a stand-alone theory, critiques the grammar of race and crime including the label “Black Criminology,” and last identifies individual and discipline-wide steps that, if heeded, will promote the development of a Black Criminology.
