Race, Crime, and Justice: Contexts and Complexities

To what extent does racial discrimination exist within the criminal justice system, and to what extent is that inequality in crime and justice an outgrowth of structured societal inequality? The empirical picture of racism and criminal justice is complex, and although a large body of valuable research on the intersection of race and crime exists, new and innovative research is needed. This special volume of The ANNALS lays a solid foundation for that research. This volume is organized into three broad sections that represent the types of emergent research from this network of scholars and focuses on patterns, processes, and consequences.This volume of The ANNALS provides an innovative approach to understanding the ways that race, ethnicity, crime, and justice are interconnected within the racialized U.S. society, but it also fosters solutions to inequalities in the criminal justice arena. Students, scholars and policymakers will find this collection of cutting-edge articles avoids taking a one-size-fits-all approach to problems of inequity and offers meaningful and novel perspectives to this complex volume.