Overview

This book explores the historical and contemporary policing of Black communities in Britain, revealing how much has — and hasn’t — changed. Drawing on 58 interviews with young people, elders, and community workers in a heavily policed North London neighbourhood, it offers a powerful, intergenerational account of racialised policing and its everyday consequences. Through an intersectional lens, it examines how race, gender, class, and place overlap to shape Black Britons’ encounters with police and their sense of belonging. Through the voices of those most affected, the book traces how these experiences have produced enduring cultural narratives of mistrust, resistance, and exclusion. Exposing how policing continues to racialise and criminalise certain communities designated suspect status, it connects these practices to the legacies of empire and the politics of othering. It concludes by considering what these histories mean for the present and future of police-community relations and offers practical recommendations for building trust, accountability, and justice.

Full Product Details

Author:   Bisi Akintoye
Publisher:   Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Imprint:   Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN:  

9783032116611

ISBN 10:   3032116619
Pages:   368
Publication Date:   31 March 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

Part I.- Chapter 1. Introduction: What’s the Story?.- Chapter 2. Locating the Study: Theory, Methodology, and Site.- Chapter 3. Tracing Shadows: Histories of Racialised Policing.- Part II.- Chapter 4. The State Never Left: Intergenerational Experiences of Racialised Policing.- Chapter 5. At the Margins: Policing Black Women and Girls.- Chapter 6. Policing the Victimised ‘Other’: Experiences of Black Victims of Crime.- Chapter 7. Cultural Toolkits and Lessons in Survival.- Chapter 8. The Long Shadow: Legacy and Intergenerational Cultural Narratives.- Chapter 9. Resisting Surveillance: Everyday and Organised Struggles Against Racialised Policing.- Chapter 10. Empire’s Echo: Race, Identity and the Politics of Belonging.- Chapter 11. Conclusions: What Now?.

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Author Information

Bisi Akintoye is Lecturer at University of Roehampton, UK, and a solicitor whose research focuses on the intersection between race, drugs, policing, and youth experiences.

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