Confronting the North's South: Race and Violence in America

• In Event: Globalising and Democratising Criminology

Abstract

The United States occupies a remarkable and complex place within the ‘North/South’ dichotomy. As one of the richer, and certainly most globally powerful, of the advanced industrial societies, it is undeniably part of the ‘North’. And the reach of American economic (and cultural) influence arguably shapes the world social order more than any other ‘Northern’ country. But the United States is also distinctive in the degree to which its development has been intricately entwined with the global ‘South’ from the beginning, in ways that are more intimate and fundamental than in other advanced industrial societies. In this paper Elliot Currie interrogates the ‘south’ within the ‘north’. The United States has a complex history of interconnection with the global south; through colonization, slavery and migration of hundreds of thousands of peoples from the global south. These histories shape the patterns of crime (especially its racialisation) and violence in America today.

Author

• Elliot Currie, University of California