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Race, ethnicity and crime

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Race, ethnicity and crime
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Course description

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This free course, Race, ethnicity and crime, briefly examines the relationships between race and ethnicity, and crime, criminalisation and criminal justice. It considers the relationship between crime and cultural difference; the notion of 'criminalisation' and how its processes affect individuals and their opportunities; and the lived consequences of racialisation. Specifically, you will examine the ways in which these criminalisations which lead to the over-policing, over-incarceration and under-protection of particular populations lie at the heart of critical criminological arguments.

Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

  • explain why the concept of criminalisation is valuable for understanding race–crime debates
  • describe the problem of disproportionality in relation to the criminal justice system
  • provide examples of some of the ways in which critical criminology has conceptually approached and researched ‘race’ and ethnicity.

First Published: 22/04/2013

Updated: 10/05/2019

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