Emerging themes

Abstract

The subject of each chapter in this book has taken an aspect of policing – victimisation, crime, riot, recruitment and so on – and tried to understand how notions of ‘race’ are constructed and sustained within each one. Processes of racialisation have been central. This does not mean that ‘race’ is always of overriding importance for policing. Importantly, it is contextualised within routine policies and practices, ideas, beliefs and actions as officers go about their everyday work. It has not been possible to isolate a subject called ‘police race relations’ and separate it from other areas of police work. The social world is not so neatly packaged. Racialised relations have wider reference points in social structures that constrain police action. Throughout this book, however, I have tried to emphasise the importance of understanding ways in which relations between people belonging to groups defined by social criteria become and continue to be associated with the idea of ‘race’; with how relations are racialised.