Causes for racial crimes
1) biological: primordialism
2) psychological: frustration-aggression theory
3) normative theory
4) split market theory
Primordialism
-ethnic and racial attachments that people have (when similar in terms of language, culture, beliefs,
ancestry, appearance) reflect a basic tendency to seek out and associate with people such as them
-ethnic grouping is "encoded" in our genes
-discrimination, prejudice, and ethnocentrism are natural and inevitable behaviours
Frustration-aggression Theory
-psychological
-frustration with your life leads to aggression
-ex. hitler blamed the jews, and we know what happened next
Normative Theory
-prejudice passed down from generation to generation (socialized into children)
-consequently, people who are taught prejudice will display discriminatory behaviour
-prejudice and discrimination can be explained by:
1) a person's definition of situations
2) reference group norms
Normative Theory: Merton
-argued that discrimination occurs before prejudice
,-people are instilled with "success norms" and when they do not have the means to achieve them,
they blame others (discriminate) and use prejudice and stereotyping to rationalize their
discrimination
The Vertical Mosaic
-text by John Porter
-examined the class structure of Canadian society
-believed there were two groups;
1) charter groups, which colonized the country and set up the rules for others to follow should they
try to enter Canada
2) entrance groups
-believed that state policies created a vertical mosaic of ethnic groups with the charter groups on top
and the entrance groups at the bottom
Split labour market theory
-created by Edna Bonacich
-holds that racial and ethnic conflicts are rooted in differences in the price of labour
-there are three groups in society:
1) business/capitalists
2) highly paid (white) labour
3) lower paid (non-white) labour
-the business class benefits from working class fighting, which they perpetuate via discriminatory
employment practices
Eugenics in Canada: Sterilization
-in the 1920s and 1930s in Alberta and British Columbia, doctors were concerned with physical and
mental defects caused by immigrants reproducing with white people
-sterilization required parental consent, so they removed the consent provision in 1937
, -by the end, first nation and metis sterilizations accounted for 25% even though they were only 2.5%
of the population
-the act was removed in 1971
Rushton and race science
-Rushton was a UWO psychology professor
-according to him, there are 3 races:
1) negroids, which are biologically disposed towards crime and are less intelligent
2) caucasoids
3) mongoloids, who are less disposed towards crime and aggression and are more intelligent
-arranged these three races in a hierarchy
-flawed because he uses the concept of race and treats it as unproblematic
-also doesn't account for the differences in which crime is measured in various nations
-criticized a lot and questioned for his motives
Merton and Conflict
-Merton was as functionalist, and hence examined the norms of society
-His casual analysis ended up being more useful for conflict theorists
-Most conflict theorists believed that the struggle to accumulate wealth in capitalist society is to
blame for prejudice and discrimination
-Immigrants are blamed for the poor economic situation experienced by the members of the
proletariat
Racial profiling
-exists when the memory of a certain racial or ethnic group becomes subject to greater levels of
criminal justice surveillance than others
-ex. black people getting followed around in stores
1) biological: primordialism
2) psychological: frustration-aggression theory
3) normative theory
4) split market theory
Primordialism
-ethnic and racial attachments that people have (when similar in terms of language, culture, beliefs,
ancestry, appearance) reflect a basic tendency to seek out and associate with people such as them
-ethnic grouping is "encoded" in our genes
-discrimination, prejudice, and ethnocentrism are natural and inevitable behaviours
Frustration-aggression Theory
-psychological
-frustration with your life leads to aggression
-ex. hitler blamed the jews, and we know what happened next
Normative Theory
-prejudice passed down from generation to generation (socialized into children)
-consequently, people who are taught prejudice will display discriminatory behaviour
-prejudice and discrimination can be explained by:
1) a person's definition of situations
2) reference group norms
Normative Theory: Merton
-argued that discrimination occurs before prejudice
,-people are instilled with "success norms" and when they do not have the means to achieve them,
they blame others (discriminate) and use prejudice and stereotyping to rationalize their
discrimination
The Vertical Mosaic
-text by John Porter
-examined the class structure of Canadian society
-believed there were two groups;
1) charter groups, which colonized the country and set up the rules for others to follow should they
try to enter Canada
2) entrance groups
-believed that state policies created a vertical mosaic of ethnic groups with the charter groups on top
and the entrance groups at the bottom
Split labour market theory
-created by Edna Bonacich
-holds that racial and ethnic conflicts are rooted in differences in the price of labour
-there are three groups in society:
1) business/capitalists
2) highly paid (white) labour
3) lower paid (non-white) labour
-the business class benefits from working class fighting, which they perpetuate via discriminatory
employment practices
Eugenics in Canada: Sterilization
-in the 1920s and 1930s in Alberta and British Columbia, doctors were concerned with physical and
mental defects caused by immigrants reproducing with white people
-sterilization required parental consent, so they removed the consent provision in 1937
, -by the end, first nation and metis sterilizations accounted for 25% even though they were only 2.5%
of the population
-the act was removed in 1971
Rushton and race science
-Rushton was a UWO psychology professor
-according to him, there are 3 races:
1) negroids, which are biologically disposed towards crime and are less intelligent
2) caucasoids
3) mongoloids, who are less disposed towards crime and aggression and are more intelligent
-arranged these three races in a hierarchy
-flawed because he uses the concept of race and treats it as unproblematic
-also doesn't account for the differences in which crime is measured in various nations
-criticized a lot and questioned for his motives
Merton and Conflict
-Merton was as functionalist, and hence examined the norms of society
-His casual analysis ended up being more useful for conflict theorists
-Most conflict theorists believed that the struggle to accumulate wealth in capitalist society is to
blame for prejudice and discrimination
-Immigrants are blamed for the poor economic situation experienced by the members of the
proletariat
Racial profiling
-exists when the memory of a certain racial or ethnic group becomes subject to greater levels of
criminal justice surveillance than others
-ex. black people getting followed around in stores
