There has been much debate over the nature of relations between the different ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Some argue that the United States is a genuinely multi-cultural nation where the opportunity for universal socio-political and economic advancement still exists. Others, however, paint America as a nation fundamentally split down a black'/'white' middle, despite the recent arrival of vast numbers of immigrants from Asia and Latin America and maintain that racially-determined discrimination has irrevocably undermined its pluralist ambitions. It is my belief that neither position offers an entirely accurate portrait of the nature of relations between different ethnic and racial groups, because neither offers a suitably complex and flexible model for boundary or identity construction. Using Bakhtin's theory of 'dialogics' I argue that detective fiction can provide this kind of model because the novel is "heteroglot" and as such reflects all the voices present in society, and the detective acts as a kind of cultural mediator who moves between and thus draws together the different racial and ethnic groups. I also explore the formal and thematic characteristics of detective fiction produced by writers of African-American, Chicano, Cuban and Jewish descent in order to establish how their experiences have been different. Yet, it is not my aim to seal off the various groups in pure ethnic enclaves; rather, to assess whether and where the areas of commonality exist. To this extent, I theorize 'race' and 'ethnicity' as overlapping yet diverging categories. I argue that the ethnic detective novel acknowledges this situation and offers a model for identity construction which both recognizes the extent of racial divisions but which is also flexible enough to acknowledge that significant group interplay does also take place.

This study examined the relationship between social structures and crime among rural white and urban black males in North Carolina through the theoretical framework of Merton's Anomie. Using demographic information on the state's inmate population provided by the North Carolina Department of Corrections, the subjects' individual characteristics were studied alongside community level conditions to establish whether anomic conditions did coincide with specific types of crimes and whether individuals from each group would commit the same types of crimes. The study population came from the rural counties of Graham, Alleghany, Swain, and Mitchell and the urban communities within Charlotte of Mecklenburg County. Univariate and Bivariate analysis were used to establish the significance and strength of any relationships between the variables. The findings indicated that while the category of offense was different for each group, the implied intent was the same. Both committed crimes that would benefit them in a pecuniary manner.

This dissertation situates the emergence of gangsta rap from 1988-1997 within the historical trajectory of the American criminal justice system and the mass incarceration of African Americans. Specifically, it examines how the genre enacted the mark of criminality as a gesture of resistance in a period of sustained moral panic surrounding race and criminality in the United States. The mark of criminality refers to a regime of signifiers inscribed upon African American bodies that imagines black subjects as fundamental threats to social order. Drawing upon the theoretical resources of historical materialism and cultural studies, the project locates the mark of criminality within the social structures of capitalism, arguing that hegemonic fantasies of racialized criminality protect oppressive and exploitative social relations. The project concludes that while gangsta rap has many significant limitations associated with violence, misogyny, and commercialism, it nonetheless represents a salient expression of resistance that can inform broader interventions against the American prisons system. A number of questions guide this project. Chief among them are the following: In what ways does the criminal justice system operate as a site of rhetorical invention and hegemonic struggle? To what extent does gangsta rap enable and disable rhetorical and political agency? To what extent does it enable and disable interracial political practice? What are the implications of gangsta rap for a gendered politics of criminality? Three case studies demonstrate how specific gangsta rap artists inverted the mark of criminality toward the constitution of affirmative and resistant fantasies of black criminality. While the work of these artists, I argue, was significantly limited in its emancipatory potential, it nonetheless offered important insights into the contingency of race and crime in America. The project also considers how other rhetors responded to gangsta discourse, frequently toward the end of supporting hegemonic notions of race and criminality. The dissertation concludes that criminality functions as a vibrant site of rhetorical invention and resistance provided it is articulated to broader movements for social justice. While the often-problematic discourses of gangsta rap do not constitute politically progressive rhetorics in their own rights, they provide resources for the articulation of righteous indignation and utopian desires capable of challenging the prison-industrial complex. / text

This study investigated how the image of Black criminality in the media affects the racial identity and emotions of Blacks. It also examined how the image of White criminality affects the racial identity and emotions of Whites as a point of comparison. These effects were studied through the lens of self-categorization theory and inter-group emotions theory. SCT posits that a person*s biases are a result of how relevant their social identity is to their self-concept. IET posits that the emotions a person feels are derived from the social group they belong to. This study analyzed 369 responses from participants who were presented with Twitter news pages that presented all Black crime stories, all White crime stories, or negative (no race) stories. Findings showed that both Blacks and Whites decreased self-categorization with their race after viewing same-race criminality news stories. It also found that emotions were affected by content of the newsfeed. Lastly, the study found significant differences in self-categorization based on level of identification.