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INTRODUCTION
In October, 2002, The Toronto Star began publication of a series of articles on the topic of race and crime (see Rankin et al., 2002a, 2002b, 2002c). The Star's analysis of arrest data from the Toronto Police Service revealed that black people are highly over-represented in certain offence categories - including drug possession, drug trafficking, and serious violence. The Star maintained that this pattern of over-representation is consistent with the idea that the Toronto police engage in racial profiling and that minority offenders are treated more harshly after arrest than their white counterparts (Rankin et al., 2002b; 2002c).
The articles created a firestorm of controversy. In response, criminal justice representatives vehemently denied all allegations of racial bias. Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino, for example, declared that: "There is no racism... We don't look at, nor do we consider race or ethnicity, or any of that, as factors of how we dispose of cases, or individuals, or how we treat individuals" (The Toronto Star, 2002a:A14). Critics of the Star further argued that black people are over-represented in arrest statistics not because of differential treatment, but because they simply engage in much more criminal activity than people from other racial backgrounds. This perception was bolstered by a rash of black-on-black homicides that rocked the city later that year (see Christopoulos, 2002; Blizzard, 2002; Worthington, 2002; Rankin et al., 2002c, 2002d; Goldstein, 2002). Although the Star series once again brought the issue of race, crime, and criminal justice into the public spotlight, it should be stressed that the importance of this topic is not confined to the Toronto area. Indeed, over the past half century, similar "race/crime" controversies have emerged with respect to the treatment of black people in Nova Scotia and Quebec, the treatment of Asians and South Asians in British Columbia, and the treatment of aboriginal people throughout the country (see reviews in La Prairie, 2004; Wortley and McCalla, 2004; Chan and Mirchani, 2002; Hylton, 2002; Henry and Tator, 2000).
A FOCUS ON INTERSECTIONS
Despite numerous government inquiries (see, for example, Commission on Systemic Racism, 1995), debate continues to rage in Canada over whether or not some racial/ethnic groups are more involved in crime than others, whether or not there is systemic discrimination within the...