Race, Gender, Ethnicity and Crime

The course aims to examine the role of gender, ethnicity, and race in criminal justice.

It seeks to assess whether and how criminal justice systems take these particular characteristics into account, and in this perspective it will address the position of offenders, victims of crimes, as well as judges, law enforcement officers, and other public officials.

The course will reference experiences of the US and European criminal justice systems and use the “law in context” methodology to explain how various institutions operate in a given political, economic, and social reality. It will include elements of international human rights law and equality law to introduce such concepts as multiple/intersectional discrimination, systemic discrimination, social stereotypes, or gender and racial/ethnic bias. Its special focus will be on racially motivated crimes and gender-based violence.

There will be also sessions devoted to culturally motivated crimes and “cultural defense”. In this context, the course will analyze challenges to criminal justice systems related to immigration and multiculturalism.