SOME RECENT APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF RACE IN CRIMINOLOGICAL RESEARCH - RACE AS SOCIAL-PROCESS

In this paper, recent approaches to the study of race and criminologic al subjects are reviewed. First, regression analysis is discussed and criticized for its tendency to conceptualize race as a discrete phenom enon, unrelated to the social contexts within which it is manifest. Th e problem here is an under-theorization of race. Next, the concept of 'Other' which has been employed by sociologists who work within what h as been called the new racism' themes of research, is criticized for a Lack of grounding in systematic evidence and neglect of the mundane w orld. Race is here over-theorized. Using data from two studies of the employment experience of black and Asian police officers, an analysis of processes of racialization grounded in the occupational cultural co ntexts of policing is advanced to illustrate a preferred approach to t he study of race.