NCJ Number
176115
Editor(s)
D F Hawkins
Date Published
1995
Length
394 pages
Annotation
This book examines both historical and contemporary patterns of crime and justice among white ethnics and nonwhite racial groups in the United States.
Abstract
The 16 chapters in this volume of papers were selected to provide varying approaches to the study of crime and its relationship to ethnicity and race. They are almost equally divided among those that provide historical perspectives and those the explore contemporary phenomena. The chapters have a common theme: the authors' attempt to explain why some ethnic and racial groups apparently are more likely than others to be sanctioned for involvement in crime. The volume begins with an outline of the major theoretical currents that have guided research and writing on ethnic and racial differences in the level of crime and punishment in modern societies. The second part of the volume contains six papers, all of which provide historical perspectives on crime and crime control in the United States. Papers by Joan McCord, M. Craig Brown and Barbara D. Warner, and Eric Monkkonen explore issues of ethnic differences in crime and punishment that emerged with the immigration of Europeans to America during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The nine papers in the concluding section of the volume all examine late 20th century patterns of crime and social control. The first six of these papers explore in various ways the issue of the disproportionate presence of African Americans among those processed through the American criminal justice system. The remaining papers address self-determination and American Indian justice; the treatment of German and non-German suspects in the period 1960-1990; and minority group threat, crime, and the mobilization of law in France. Chapter references and notes and subject and author indexes