Whitewashing Criminal Justice in Canada: Preventing Research through Data Suppression

Abstract

Race and racism have long played an important role in Canadian law and continue to do so. However, conducting research on race and criminal justice in Canada is difficult given the lack of readily available data that include information about race. We show that data on the race of victims and accused persons are being suppressed by police organizations in Canada and argue that suppression of race prevents quantitative anti-racism research while not preventing the use of these data by the police for racial profiling. We also argue that when powerful institutions, such as the police, have knowledge that they keep secret or refuse to discover, it serves the interests of those institutions at the expense of the public. Fears that reporting of racial data will result in racial profiling or the stigmatization of racialized communities are not assuaged by the repression of this information. Stigmatization may still occur, and racial profiling can continue to happen, but without public knowledge. Quantitative anti-racist research requires consistent, institutionalized reporting of race data through all aspects of Canadian justice. We outline what data are available, what data are needed, and where consistency is lacking. It is argued that institutional preferences for white-washed data, with race and ethnicity removed, should be subrogated to transparency.

Beyond Pain and Outrage: Understanding and Addressing Anti‐Black Racism in Canada

“…Moreover, sociologists can join and amplify advocates and scholars’ call for the collection of race‐based data by different government agencies and departments since the absence of disaggregated data by race contributes to Canadians tendency to take solace in a misguided belief that compared to the United States, the justice system and other institutions in Canada are color‐blind. The current lack of data limits the effective analysis of, and response to, the disparities experienced by African Canadians (Millar and Owusu‐Bempah 2011; United Nations Human Rights Council 2017). In sum, this symposium is an opportunity and an invitation to deepen and broaden the sociology of African Canadians and move toward addressing anti‐black racism with tangible actions.…”

Interrogating Race, Crime, and Justice in a Time of Unease and Racial Tension

“…In both cases, efforts are being made to provide data of these types (e.g., Lauritsen and Cork, ). This gives me some hope, but there are many other areas where quality data are needed, such as observed for Canada (Millar and Owusu‐Bempah, ; Owusu‐Bempah and Millar, ). Also, there are efforts to curtail data‐gathering and access to race‐based data within the United States.…”

Structural Determinants of Municipal Police Force Size in Large Cities Across Canada

“…The primary cause of such limited scholarship is what effectively amounts to a ban on the collection and/or release of race-specific crime or justice statistics (for elaboration, see Millar & Owusu-Bempah, 2011;Wortley, 1999Wortley, , 2003. Despite this limitation, research suggests that ethnic minorities face discrimination at multiple points in the criminal justice system from involvement with police, to bail, and sentencing.…”