This book explores, for the first time in an edited collection, the intersection of three key research areas - women, madness and the law - and advances the debates on how law and the 'psy' sciences play a critical role in regulating and controlling women's lives.

This book explores, for the first time in an edited collection, the intersection of three key research areas - women, madness and the law - and advances the debates on how law and the 'psy' sciences play a critical role in regulating and controlling women's lives.

Immigrant women are not only at greater risk of experiencing domestic violence but they also under-utilize mainstream services because their needs are not adequately met there. Understanding their situation involves recognizing that their views and experiences of domestic violence are influenced by the intersections of gender, race, class and immigration. Immigrant women may not access these services because they are unavailable in their community or the women are not aware of the services, or because the services and intervention strategies are not linguistically and culturally appropriate, portable, or coordinated with other services. As a result, the outcomes and solutions provided are often compromised and unsatisfactory. Many immigrant women stay in the abusive relationship, essentially hiding in plain sight, due to the inadequate support available and despite the extraordinary efforts of many service providers. Based on interviews with service providers from the immigration, criminal justice and family justice systems in four different communities in BC, Hiding in Plain Sight examines the barriers encountered by abused immigrant women across Canada as they seek services and support, and identifies the key challenges for abused immigrant women accessing services as well as the struggles service organizations experience in meeting their needs.

Arguing that people of color are most often the casualties in the governments' desire to roll back the welfare state, this analysis delves into the current myths and stereotypes about racial difference. In exploring such myths in conjunction with the enforcement of welfare fraud policies, this study shows how people of color are constructed as potential "cheaters" and "abusers" of the system, and how this has allowed for the stigmatizing and discriminatory treatment of certain races to persist unchallenged. With an analysis of the criminalization and penalization of poverty--including the increased surveillance and control of welfare recipients--this argument sheds new light on the perspectives of poverty advocates.

The original essays in Crimes of Colour explore the link between "race" and "crime" in the Canadian context. Much of the literature on race and crime to date has treated the category of "race" unproblematically; debate on this topic has focused primarily on the assumption that members of certain racial groups are most likely to commit crimes.

In charting a different path, the authors in this collection provide critical and historical analyses of the connections between processes of "racialization" and "criminalization" in Canada. The book seeks to engage the reader in thinking critically about how conceptualizations of racial identity and crime are interwoven. The editors begin by arguing for a need to shift from an analysis of "race" to an analysis of "racialization" in order to create the space for new ways of looking at the connections between race and crime. They investigate the history of the treatment of racialized people in Canada, looking at the processes through which First Nations people, immigrants, and people of colour have been defined in racialized terms and the way in which state policy has racialized individuals and groups. The insights provided by the historical backdrop situates the problematic legal positions First Nations people and people of colour occupied vis-a-vis the criminal justice system.

Contemporary analyses of "race" and crime continue to highlight the on-going, complex, and subtle nature of the issues. Understanding how individuals are racialized in the legal system forms one of the main themes in this collection. Specifically, these discussions involve identifying the processes through which racialized groups and individuals are criminalized. The processes of racialization and criminalization come together in many contexts including various criminal justice institutions like the police and social institutions like the media.