The (Un)Victim of Crime: Racialised Victims and the Police

Abstract

This chapter shows how Black and Black mixed-race people experience policing as victims of crime. It argues that the processes of racialisation in the operation of police decision making, and the legitimisation of white fear, construct Black victims of crime as antithetical to the image of the `ideal victim' (Christie in From Crime Policy to Victim. Macmillan, London, 1986). This is evident through racialised policing which denies victim status to black bodies. Through the processes implicated in `becoming' the victim, Black and Black mixed-race people become the (Un)Victim. The chapter argues that the resulting denial of justice has a significant impact upon trust and confidence in policing and willingness to report crime, therefore preventing Black victims from seeking support and protection from the state. This under-protection results in a racialised re-victimisation, which can trump the effects of victimisation, particularly in the context of minor crimes.