Explanations of Blacks' Criminality in America: 1630s-1950s. Issue 10 (2nd October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Barmaki, Reza
• Is Part Of: Deviant behavior. Volume 41:Issue 10(2020)
• Page Start: 1305
• Page End: 1329
• Publication Date: 2020-10-02
• Subjects: Deviant behavior -- Periodicals; 302.54205
• DOI: 10.1080/01639625.2019.1614138
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0163-9625

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Criminological research about blacks' criminality proliferated during the 1960s. Since then, a great body of knowledge about them has been produced that has attributed their criminality to various causes. However, prior to that date, such knowledge was scarce. What were the explanations of blacks' criminality before that (roughly between 1630s-1950s)? I argue that during this period five successive explanations of their criminality emerged: popular, religious, speculative, pseudoscientific, and scientific. This mainly had to do with the gradual transformation of America from an agricultural-rural-communal-religious society to an industrial-urban-individualistic-scientific one.