Racialization of Crime

Kelly Welch

For a variety of reasons, the association of race with crime and crime according to race has been an enduring feature of American culture. In fact, race-based assumptions about crime have become so ingrained in public consciousness that the racial identity of suspects need not be mentioned in order for race to be conjured along with crime. This is particularly true for African Americans, whose race seems to be the most closely related to crime in the minds of many Americans. The development of this inextricable linkage between race and crime is referred to as the racialization of crime and has influenced attitudes about crime among the public and functioned as a subtle rationale for both official and unofficial policies and practices that perpetuate differential treatment by criminal justice officials. Factors contributing to the racialization of crime for Blacks have included actual and perceived participation in crime, the 1980s War ...

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