Diasporic Conditions: Mapping the Discourses of Race and Criminality in Italy

Abstract

Through a discussion of "diasporic conditions" this article examines the conditions of possibility of discursive formations of an African criminal‐other that has a long and silent history in the African Diaspora. 1 explore how race, gender, and national origin figure into the ways the Italian state and its citizens construct African immigrant women as criminals. I map the significance of race and gender as it is grounded in criminological debates during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. I demonstrate how early criminological scholarship shapes contemporary notions of criminals in Italy and in Europe. Rather than discuss immigrants in Italy's social landscape generally, I focus my attention on immigration policies and forms of racism and racialized violence that have been on the rise as immigrant populations in Italy increase in numbers and become more visible.