One of the most contentious and divisive issues in the sociology of crime and deviance is the impact racism is claimed to have on people’s engagement with the criminal justice system (CJS). Is it the behaviour, especially of young men from some minority communities, that brings them into regular contact with the CJS? Or is it the attention of the police which produces the over-representation, particularly of black men, in official statistics?
Many sociologists now argue that it is more likely to be a combination of race and class-based inequality and male humiliation, and racist police practices, which accounts for these outcomes. Others suggest that if racism is indeed a key factor in such figures, why is there so much variation in the experiences of ethnic minority groups?
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