Critical Race Theory for Historical Criminology in Britain

Miller, Esmorie and Seal, Lizzie (2025) Critical Race Theory for Historical Criminology in Britain. In: Memory as Power : Historical Criminology and the Role of the Past in Critical Scholarship. Contemporary Social Sciences, 1 (1). Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 53-70. ISBN 9783111317359 (In Press)

Abstract

This chapter posits that the contemporary moral panics about Critical Race Theory (CRT) in schools, characteristic of American politics, have relevance to Britain. British Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Kemi Badenoch’s recent declaration that CRT is political and should be treated as such is one way to understand, (a) CRT’s relevance in Britain, and (b) how this relevance can be adduced in terms of the intersections with historical criminology. We outline what critical race theory is, criminological examples of applying critical race theory, and its relationship with intersectionality. CRT was developed by American legal scholars, including Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, Patricia J. Williams, and Patricia Hill Collins. American criminologists thus originated intersectional and Black criminologies, incorporating the analysis of race and racism. However, race is not only an American phenomenon and racism is not only an American problem. Focusing on the United Kingdom, the chapter argues that CRT has application for historical criminology beyond the United States and presents illustrative examples from the authors’ historical criminological research. It examines the significance of gender and the need for intersectionality in historical criminological research about, and with, racialised women in Britain.