This text sets out to address the influence of the courts on the over representation of black people in the criminal figures by adopting an approach which gives prominence to the beginning and end of a case prior to sentencing. Studies of race and sentencing represent the greatest part of research in this area and have focused on why black people are disproportionately represented in the prison population whilst ignoring the social processes of the courts that lead to sentencing. The book aims to point out that the trial process plays a vital role in determining the production of the popular quantitiative studies of race and sentencing, it presents the court system as non-mechanical by adopting an approach which locates the study within a theoretical context of social construction.
