Substantive Research
A key focus of this debate has been crime and policing. In 1979 the Institute of Race Relations raised policing as a central issue for ethnic minorities in Britain. It concluded that there was powerful evidence to suggest that arrest and police powers were being used to keep the black community in its place both physically and psychologically. In 1983 the Policy Studies Institute (PSI) extended this finding by examining the operation of the esusf law. This law made it a criminal offence to be ea suspicious person loitering with intent to commit a crimef. The PSI established that a disproportionate ratio (8:1) of young black men of the same ecrimeogenicf age. (Beynon & Kushnic, 2002)

The effects of race and social and economic class cannot be separated from issues of gender in considering violent crime. A number of American studies have pointed to the higher rates of violent crime among black populations than white (eg. Simpson 1991; Reiss and Roth 1993; Arnold 1990). Others have noted that black women are much more likely to be charged with violent offences in the USA than other women (McClain 1982-83; Mann 1990b; Simpson 1991). Similarly, in Canada, Aboriginal men and women are more likely to be charged and incarcerated for violent offences than non-Aboriginals (Moyer 1992; LaPrairie 1992; LaPrairie 1993).
Since data have been collected on comparative offences of incarcerated Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women, they have consistently revealed that Aboriginal women are incarcerated for more violent crimes than non-Aboriginal women. (LaPrairie 1993 p.236)