Tag Archives: African american

http://www.crimeculture.com/Contents/Articles-Winter10/branson.html

This article illuminates the divergence in cultural assumptions of African American’s predisposition towards violent crimes and the lack of association and detection of this type of crime ( Serial predation) by authorities. According to the article, some of the sources stem from deeply held racial bias, reinforcing stereotypical imagery and the perpetuation of “static ethnocentric criminal profiling methodology” Ala the FBI. One of the examples they use are John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, the DC snipers and the media and law enforcement’s response to the racial identities of these serial murderers. Though the article focuses mostly on African Americans and their relation to serial murders, it also makes the case that it may illuminate the participation of serial predation in other races unassociated with that form of crime. And finally the article also presents a link towards the portrayal of Serial killers in fiction and its contribution in constricting and impeding viable models that can effectively counter this threat.

I am drawing a similarity in the approaches of and the danger that assumptions play in rendering  certain crimes invisible to the public at whole. The readings on Lafarge and the poet killer illuminated gendered and occupational assumptions held by authorities and the people on the projected innocence of those accused. Both articles warn of the very danger of assuming one’s criminality to deeply held biases rather then the universal problem it exhibits in reality (in terms of murder); Criminality such as Serial Murder cannot be contained within haphazard and simple cultural notions,  which can be in turn problematic in forming an accurate picture of the issue.