The aim of this book is to stimulate criminological debate on issues of crime, race, racism and criminal justice and to offer practical guidance to those seeking to address race issues and confront racism.

The text first critiques existing - largely empirical - research on race and criminal justice, and then presents theoretical advances in criminology and sociology, examining the methodological implications of applying such theory to future research. After reassessing the value of past research, particularly in terms of policy development, contributors discuss issues such as competing ethnic classification schemes, the definition of `racial' and ethnic data in criminal justice agency records. Theoretical contributions consider the development of anti-racism; the relationship between race and wider sociologies of disadvantage; the `racialization' of the politics of crime and the `criminalization' of the politics of race during the 1980s. Finally, the book examines one of the key problems for the 1990s: the development of discourses and control strategies which exclude black people from enjoyment of full citizenship rights.