Crime, Deviance and Society An Introduction to Sociological Criminology

For indigenous communities and minority populations around the globe, the criminal justice system represents a significant site of colonisation, oppression and racial discrimination (McNamara 2003). To discuss these issues this chapter adopts the framework of settler colonial law and the prison industrial complex. It provides a broad overview of statistical data on minority populations and the criminal justice systems in Australia and internationally. It also provides an overview of some of the key theoretical approaches to understanding ‘race’ and crime, including postcolonial theory, critical race theory, intersectionality and critical indigenous theory.