Jason A. answered • 02/26/19
Highly Effective Tutor for Reading, Writing, Editing, and Testing
Criminalization refers to how certain less privileged groups in society are targeted by police, law enforcement, and the criminal justice system more intensively than other groups, thereby leading these groups to be "criminalized". Because more privileged groups are not targeted to nearly the same degree, they don't get in trouble as often and therefore are much less likely to be categorized as criminals despite having comparable rates of criminal behavior. The classic example of this is how drugs widely used by white people have historically carried far less severe punishments in relation to their use or possession than those widely used by non-white people.
