Race in Popular and Courtroom Discourse of Violence
| Date | 01 June 2000 |
| Author | Anita Kalunta-Crumpton |
| DOI | 10.1177/135822910000400204 |
| Published date | 01 June 2000 |
International
Journal
of
Discrimination
and
the
Law,
2000,
Vol.
4,
pp.
153-172
1358-2291/2000 $10
©
2000
A B Academic Publishers. Printed
in
Great Britain
RACE IN POPULAR
AND
COURTROOM DISCOURSE OF
VIOLENCE
ANITA KALUNTA-CRUMPTON
Institute
of
Criminal Justice Studies, Portsmouth University, UK
ABSTRACT
In
this paper the aim
is
to demonstrate how racial symbols popularised in society
intersect with criminal justice discursive construction
of
a court case. Through the
theme
of
violence, the paper illustrates the intersection by illuminating the racial
dichotomy that underpins popular and criminal justice characterisation
of
'acts
of
violence' by black and white males.
This paper was promulgated not only by the societal awareness
of
race and violence as translated to us via popular political and media
representations, but also by how that which
'we
know' permeates the
legalities
of
court proceedings, thus, establishing the court as a site
where racial imageries and divisions are equally reproduced. In 1991,
a research study
of
drug trials conducted by the author at a London
Crown Court revealed violence as forming one
of
the themes appro-
priated in the legal rhetoric
of
the court as being consistent with
'blackness'. The research involved a seven-month systematic observa-
tion
of
court proceedings concerning
19
black1 and
18
white defend-
ants charged with a drug offence;
18
of
the
19
blacks and 14
of
the
18
whites were male. Out
of
the
18
black males, three pleaded guilty
and
of
the 14 white males, one pleaded guilty, leaving
15
black and
13
white males who entered a
'not
guilty' plea meant for a contested
jury trial for a drug offence. It is those
'not
guilty' trials that are
of
relevance to this paper because within them is located descriptive
accounts of, firstly, how the prosecution
of
drug trials meant con-
structing and reinforcing notions
of
race and violence, and secondly,
how this notion was validated in the judicial discourse. This was des-
pite the fact that, except for one black defendant charged for
assaulting a police officer, no allegation
of
any sort
of
violent beha-
viour by both black and white defendants was incorporated in the
official reason for prosecuting the defendants. Yet, through the pro-
secutorial and judicial reactions to comparable unofficial allegations
of
violence in black and white defendants' cases, violence was dis-
154
cursively constructed in its abnormality, criminality and threatening
nature -only in cases concerning black defendants. Although the
defendants' social position showed them to be mostly working-class
regardless
of
race, it was a similarity that was nonetheless rendered
insignificant by the racialised courtroom rhetoric on violence.
The next section maps out a theoretical angle from which to
reason and comprehend the notion
of
violence as it is responded to,
defined and represented in both popular and criminal justice discurs-
ive practices. Subsequently, the paper reviews examples
of
the
racialisation process
of
violence in popular discourse, which is fur-
ther illuminated when placed alongside the response to racial viol-
ence. This is followed by a sample part
of
evidence from the drug
trials that illustrates the construction and perpetuation
of
violence in
its racial terms by legal members within the courtroom. While the
primary focus
of
this paper goes beyond concerns with a case out-
come to demonstrate how race is subjected to a process
of
construc-
tion in the criminal justice discourse, it does however raise some
questions regarding how the interplay
of
discourses might affect a
jury's
decision-making.
VIOLENCE, (CLASS) AND RACE: A SOCIAL
CONSTRUCTIONIST
FRAMEWORK
The popularity
of
violent acts
by
males as an area
of
study coincides
with the varied topics in feminist, masculinities, cultural studies liter-
ature through which forms
of
male violence have been explored and
placed within different theoretical constructs (see, for example, Smart
1989; Stanko 1985; Segal 1990; Newburn and Stanko 1994; Hall
et
a/
1978). Together with official crime statistics, political and media
accounts
of
violence, the preponderance
of
evidence posits violence
as a male prerogative (see, for instance Archer 1994; Braithwaite and
Daly 1994, 1998), particularly obvious among the working-class (see
Tolson 1977; Levi 1997). The class dimension to the understanding
of
violence relates to the fact that, dating back through history,
working-class deviance and crime have remained at the centre
of
official and popular discourses. In criminology, there is well-
documented literature which highlights the working class -deviance/
crime connection -from the North American to the British contribu-
tion (see Cohen 1955; Cloward and Ohlin 1960; Mays 1954; Downes
1966). Violence by working-class males has relatedly featured signi-
ficantly in criminological research and as Stanko (1994: 35) has
rightly stated, 'the ideological and practical strength
of
the
'real'
violence remains firmly fixed on the street' due, she notes, to 'the
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