Policing Understood as a Racial Project: An Exploration of the Role Law Enforcement Has Played in the Shaping of Race Relations in the United States

Law enforcement and minority communities have had a complicated history in the United States to say the least. The theoretical propositions used to explain the myriad of interlocking relationships between race, criminal activity, neighborhood disorder, public perceptions of crime, and law enforcement itself, have provided us with nuggets of insight that have all contributed to enhancing our understanding of crime and policing in the U.S., but none have provided an overall interpretation of this complex and often convoluted relationship. This dissertation seeks to rectify this issue by not only examining the history of law enforcement and its relation to minority communities but also the major factors that have affected this relationship such as criminological statistics and the academic discipline of criminology itself